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BV  3790 

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1921 

Hannan, 

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Watson, 

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BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  AN  EVANGELISTIC 
OPPORTUNITY 


EVANGELISM 


BY/ 

WATSON  HANNAN 


On- 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  192 1,  by 
F.  WATSON  HANNAN 


TO  MY  THREE  SONS,  WHOSE  FILIAL 
DEVOTION,  LOVE  TO  GOD  AND  HIGH 
IDEALS  ILLUSTRATE  THE  EVANGEL- 
ISM HEREIN  SET  FORTH,  IS  THIS 
BOOK  MOST  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDI- 
CATED. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Foreword 9 

PART  I 
GENERAL  EVANGELISM 

CHAPTER 

I.  The  General  Statement 13 

11.  The  Program 19  ' 

IIL  General  Methods 47 

IV.  The  Message  (General) 54 

V.  The  Message  (Specific) 67 

PART  II 
PASTORAL  EVANGELISM 

I.  The  Need  of  Pastoral  Evangelism 85 

II.  The  Big  Union  Meetings 100 

IIL  The  Periodic  Revival 113 

IV.  The  Conduct  of  the  Periodic  Revival 119 

V.  Continuous  Evangelism 133 

PART  III 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL  EVANGELISM 

I.  Opportunity  and  Responsibility 143 

II.  Decision  Day 172 

PART  IV 
PRACTICAL  EVANGELISM  CONSERVING  RESULTS 

I.  The  Christian  Life 181 

11.  The  Doctrinal  Basis 198 

III.  The  Christian  Service 217 

IV.  The  Art  of  Soul- Winning 228 

V.  The  Master  Soul- Winner 241 


THE  FOREWORD 

At  a  time  like  this,  when  so  many  valuable  and  in- 
structive books  on  all  phases  of  evangelism  are  offered 
to  the  church,  it  seems  presumptuous  to  add  still  an- 
other to  the  already  long  list.  But  the  field  of  evangel- 
ism is  so  vast  and  so  varied  that  no  one  book  can  cover 
it  all,  and  no  one  man  can  give  all  the  counsels  and  sug- 
gestions that  may  be  of  practical  value.  So  the  writer 
feels  that  there  may  be  a  need  and  use  for  the  small 
contribution  that  he  is  able  to  make  to  this  very  im- 
portant work  of  evangelism. 

If  this  book  has  any  merit,  it  is  this :  its  principles 
and  plans  were  practiced  before  they  were  written,  and 
they  worked  well.  If  they  prove  as  successful  to  others 
as  they  have  been  to  the  writer,  who  tested  them  out 
in  his  own  evangelistic  ministry,  he  will  feel  that  work 
has  been  worth  while. 

The  chief  aim  of  the  book  is  to  give  young  ministers 
a  broader  view  of  evangelism  than  is  sometimes  held  by 
showing  how  fundamental  it  is  to  all  church  activity, 
and  thus  helping  them  to  be  more  efficient  evangelistic 
pastors.  It  is  hoped,  however,  that  laymen  also  may  be 
stimulated  by  it  to  a  larger  and  more  thorough  evan- 
gelistic endeavor. 

Evangelism  has  not  been  considered  broadly  enough. 
It  has  been  thought  of  only  as  an  incident  in  the  gen- 
eral program  of  church  activity.  If  the  church  held 
evangelistic  meetings  for  one  month  in  the  year,  it 
seemed  to  think  that  its  evangelistic  obligations  had 

9 


10  THE    FOREWORD 

been  met,  whether  the  meetings  had  been  successful  or 
not.  The  object  of  evangehsm  was  thought  to  be  the 
saving  of  men's  souls.  That  was  good  as  far  as  it 
went,  but  it  did  not  go  far  enough.  Evangehsm  must 
save  man  in  his  entirety,  and  that  means  that  society 
must  be  saved  as  well  as  the  individual.  That  is  the 
modern  note  in  evangelism.  It  aims  to  establish  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  earth.  That  w^as  the  evangelism 
of  the  Old  Testament  prophets.  It  was  the  evangelism 
of  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  and  that  is  the  evangelism 
which  the  modern  world  needs  and  demands,  if  the  new 
world  that  is  built  after  the  wreckage  of  the  war  is 
to  be  a  Christian  world.  Men  must  be  rightly  related 
to  God  and  to  one  another  if  true  democracy  and 
brotherhood  are  to  be  realized  on  the  earth.  It  is  for 
that  kind  of  an  evangelism  that  this  book  pleads. 

The  reader  will  find  repetitions  and  some  overlap- 
ping here  and  there  in  the  book,  but  the  discussion  of 
the  same  or  similar  subjects  under  different  heads 
made  that  almost  inevitable.  The  subjects  are  grouped 
in  such  a  way  that  the  pastor  can  study  each  group  by 
itself  with  much  cross  reference,  hence  the  repetitions 
and  overlappings. 

It  is  with  the  hope  that  this  book  may  kindle  the 
evangelistic  passion  of  Jesus  in  the  hearts  of  young 
men  entering  the  ministry  and  be  of  practical  value  to 
them  and  those  who  work  with  them  in  the  further- 
ance of  the  gospel  that  it  is  now  sent  forth. 

F.  Watson  Hannan. 
Drew  Theological  Seminary, 

Department  of  Biblical  Theology, 
Madison,  N.  J. 


PART  I 
GENERAL  EVANGELISM 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  GENERAL  STATEMENT 

The  object  of  evangelism  is  to  get  men  and  women 
— to  get  folks — into  right  relation  to  God.  That  means 
far  more  than  to  give  them  a  comfortable  feeling  now 
and  a  sense  of  future  security,  for  the  immediate  corol- 
lary of  right  relation  to  God  is  right  relation  to  men. 
Any  evangelism  which  does  not  include  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  whole  life  to  its  highest  uses  and  most  com- 
plete development  comes  far  short  of  the  demands  of 
to-day.  If  the  reconstruction  which  is  to  issue  from 
world  peace  is  to  be  a  real  new  world,  it  must  result 
from  a  reconstructed  humanity  in  its  entirety.  That  is 
a  task  great  enough  to  challenge  the  best  effort  of  God 
and  man  working  together.  This  will  not  and  cannot 
be  done  by  one  stroke,  but  it  must  be  the  goal  of  evan- 
gelistic endeavor,  or  the  church  will  go  on  marking 
time  and  fail  of  its  great  opportunity.  Meantime  in- 
stitutions outside  of  the  church  will  strive  to  meet  the 
world's  need,  and  they  too  will  fail  for  want  of  that 
spiritual  dynamic  which  is  the  normal  instrument  of 
the  church  at  its  best. 

Task  of  Evangelism 

The  task  of  evangelism  is  the  salvation  of  mankind. 
That  is  more  than  saving  the  soul.  If  men  once  thought 
that  the  supreme  object  of  life  was  to  get  to  heaven 

13 


14  EVANGELISM 

to-morrow,  the  supreme  object  of  the  best  thought 
now  is  to  get  heaven  down  to  earth  to-day.  But  the 
heaven  that  the  world  needs  is  not  the  quiet  resting 
place  whose  only  activity  will  be  singing  and  harp- 
playing.  It  will  not  be  expressed  by  that  hymn,  "There 
I  shall  bathe  my  weary  soul  in  seas  of  heavenly  rest," 
etc.  That  was  the  heaven  longed  for  by  the  tired 
saints  of  yesterday,  whose  life  in  the  world  had  been 
a  weary  round  of  toil  and  self-denial.  Perhaps  those 
saints  thought  more  of  sacrifice  than  service.  But 
the  heaven  which  is  to  begin  down  here  and  to  con- 
tinue beyond  all  time  and  worlds  is  a  heaven  of  vigor- 
ous righteousness,  of  tireless  service,  of  world-wide 
sympathy,  of  real  brotherhood  built  around  Jesus 
Christ,  sanctifying  all  the  dealings  and  relationships  of 
men,  and  making  the  world  a  real  kingdom  of  God. 

Justice,  equity,  cooperation,  sympathy,  good  will, 
fairplay,  mutual  confidence — these  are  to  be  the  com- 
mon rules  of  everyday  life  in  the  new  kingdom.  Jeal- 
ousy, greed,  hatred,  suspicions,  intrigue,  brutality,  op- 
pression, and  all  such  pagan  sins  must  be  done  away. 
That  man  is  not  really  a  saved  man  who  does  not 
set  before  him  as  his  life  task  the  practice  of  the 
above  group  of  virtues  and  the  purpose  to  oppose  and 
do  away  with  the  above  group  of  vices.  The  gospel 
recognizes  geography  but  not  nationalities  as  such. 
The  true  Christian  is  the  real,  the  true  international. 
He  is  a  world  democrat,  for  he  is  a  citizen  of  a  mo- 
narchical democracy,  whose  King  is  also  Brother; 
One  who  loves  all  and  rules  all  by  serving  all.  To  make 
disciples  of  all  nations,  whether  at  home  or  abroad — 
for  to-day  everybody  is  everywhere — is  the  task  of 


THE  GENERAL  STATEMENT  15 

evangelism.  The  gospel  is  a  law  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest,  but  it  makes  men  fit  to  survive,  and  it  sees 
to  it  that  those  who  are  made  fit  do  survive.  It  is  a 
real  transformation  of  humanity ;  that  is  its  great  mis- 
sionary motive.  The  missionary  does  not  seek  the 
soul  of  the  non-Christian  alone,  but  he  also  aims  to 
create  better  schools,  industries,  homes,  and  other  ad- 
vantages. His  object  is  to  make  a  whole  new  man  out 
of  every  man,  and  to  make  a  new  world  in  which  the 
new  man  is  to  live  and  serve.  Paul  showed  in  Romans 
7,  once  for  all,  that  there  can  be  no  successful  or  happy 
living  by  serving  God  with  the  law  of  the  mind  and 
at  the  same  time  serving  sin  with  the  law  of  the  mem- 
bers. "If  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature" 
(2  Cor.  5.  17).^  His  life  is  organized  around  a  new 
center — Christ;  and  has  a  new  direction — Godward; 
and  a  new  motive — Service.  The  ministry  of  the  early 
Christians  was  preaching  and  healing.  Paul's  ministry 
was  of  the  most  practical  sort.  He  did  not  think  it 
enough  to  tell  the  Romans  or  Corinthians  how  to  say 
their  prayers,  but  how  to  live  their  lives  as  well.  If 
they  were  to  have  the  mind  of  Christ,  so  also  their 
bodies  were  holy  temples.  The  man  that  would  not 
work  should  not  eat;  that  is,  the  nonproducer  should 
not  be  a  consumer  when  his  nonproduction  was  a  mat- 
ter of  choice. 

The  Winsomeness  of  the  Gospel 

But  while  the  gospel  program  taxes  every  energy 
of  mind,  heart,  and  hand,  and  while  its  righteousness  is 
uncompromising  and  austere,  yet  all  the  while  the  gos- 

^Revised  Version,  "there  Is  a  new  creation." 


i6  EVANGELISM 

pel  for  the  whole  man  is  the  most  winsome  thing  in 
the  world,  because  it  makes  the  most  winsome  people  in 
the  world.  Adorned  people  adorn  the  gospel.  That 
must  be  so  if  the  gospel  is  to  be  a  winning  force,  and 
it  must  win  men,  they  cannot  be  forced  into  the 
realm  of  morals.  Men  must  not  only  do  the  right, 
but  must  want  to  do  the  right.  The  action  must  be 
backed  by  choice,  or,  the  choice  must  issue  in  consist- 
ent action.  An  evangelism' that  touches  only  the  moral 
conscience  will  not  be  long  effective,  nor  will  one  that 
touches  only  the  social  conscience.  Neither  will  be 
effective  without  the  other.  The  one  may  be  an  in- 
spiration, the  other  an  activity.  They  must  unite.  The 
moral  conscience  must  issue  in  the  social  conscience; 
that  is  to  say,  moral  power  must  issue  in  social  action. 
Character  and  conduct  must  go  together.  Social  and 
industrial  problems  at  the  root,  or  in  the  fruit,  are 
moral  problems. 
^-^  Evangelism  must  deal  with  sin,  which  is  a  wrong 
"**attitude  toward  God,  that  is,  anarchy  in  the  spiritual 
realm,  but  it  must  also  deal  with  sins  which  are  the 
projections  of  that  attitude  in  concrete  forms  of  wrong 
among  men.  Rent  problems,  wage  problems,  work 
problems,  sanitary  problems,  school  problems,  home 
problems,  recreation  problems  are  all  problems  of  evan- 
gelism, for  in  the  last  analysis  they  are  all  moral  prob- 
lems. That  man  need  expect  little  salvation  at  the 
altar,  no  matter  how  deep  his  contrition  or  how  genuine 
his  repentance  may  be,  if  next  day  he  is  going  to  op- 
press or  overreach  his  neighbor  in  business,  or  be  tyran- 
nical or  unreasonable  in  his  home.  He  cannot  settle  the 
problems  of  his  soul  with  God  without  settling  the 


THE  GENERAL  STATEMENT  17 

matters  of  his  conduct  with  men.  Nor  can  he  mend  his 
ways  with  men  and  ignore  the  claims  of  God.  No  one- 
sided salvation  will  bring  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Holiness  is  not  a  tangent  running  off  the  orbit  of  nor- 
mal life,  but  normal  life  at  its  best,  the  soul  in  perfect 
health.  Holiness  is  not  a  matter  of  rapture,  but  of 
righteousness,  whether  it  expresses  itself  rapturously 
or  not.  An  evangelism  which  does  not  produce  both 
Christian  character  and  Christian  service  is  a  mis- 
taken evangelism.  Evangelism  that  is  not  ethical  is  not 
needed. 

No  amount  of  machinery  in  the  church  can  be  made 
a  substitute  for  Christian  experience,  which  is  the 
power  that  will  make  the  machinery  efficient.  The 
man  who  tries  to  render  Christian  service  without  the 
Christian  experience  lacks  inspiration;  and  the  man 
who  makes  his  Christian  experience  a  personal  luxury, 
lacks  application.  The  one  is  like  perpetual  fog  or  rain, 
which  would  make  the  earth  a  quagmire ;  the  other  is 
like  endless  sunshine,  which  would  make  the  earth  a 
dust  heap.  Neither  could  support  life.  There  is  danger 
that  the  habit  of  powerful  prayer,  that  is,  very  per- 
sonal and  very  expectant  prayer,  will  be  left  out  of 
the  account  when  machinery  is  multiplied  to  cover 
every  need.  One  of  the  greatest  powers  in  evangelism 
is  the  power  of  prayer  that  comes  upon  one  in  com- 
munion with  God. 

Prayer  and  Evangelism 

The  greatest  soul-winners  have  been  mighty  in 
prayer.  This  may  seem  trite,  but  it  is  fundamental. 
It  is  a  great  thing  when  doing  God's  work  to  be  on 


1 8  EVANGELISM 

speaking  terms  with  him.  Petition  and  intercession 
are  the  two  essential  forms  of  prayer  in  evangelism. 
Prayer  for  equipment  and  prayer  for  success  means 
the  nearer  we  get  to  God  the  more  we  are  concerned 
about  men.  In  God's  presence  we  catch  Christ's  pas- 
sion. Personal,  social,  pastoral,  lay  evangelism  are 
all  different  phases  of  the  same  thing.  Different 
methods  may  be  employed  and  different  emphasis  may 
be  used,  but  the  content  is  the  same.  Personal  evan- 
gehsm,  social  evangelism,  and  industrial  evangehsm 
are  all  but  the  individual  and  corporate  application  of 
the  rule  of  God  over  the  lives  and  activities  of  men. 
The  purpose  of  it  all  is  the  same — to  save  the  entire 
human  life,  to  get  the  kingdom  of  God  down  here, 
and  to  get  the  will  of  God  done  in  the  world.  In  a 
word,  it  is  to  make  the  world  the  kingdom  of  God. 
That  means  to  change  environment  as  well  as  to  change 
man. 

It  is  necessary  to  make  the  Jericho  road  safe  for 
everybody,  else  relieving  the  victim  of  the  robbers  helps 
the  robbers,  for  it  relieves  them  of  adding  murder  to 
robbery.  Whenever  you  remedy  a  defect  without  re- 
moving the  cause  you  help  the  cause.  The  foundling 
asylum  relieves  lust  from  the  necessity  of  committing 
infanticide.  The  inebriate  asylum  gives  a  man  a  bet- 
ter home  for  being  a  drunkard  than  many  men  can  get 
by  thrift  and  sobriety.  Philanthropy  is  not  evangel- 
ism, it  is  only  one  of  its  by-products.  Unless  help 
becomes  self-help,  it  is  hindrance.  When  a  man  is 
helped  to  a  place  where  he  does  not  have  to  help  him- 
self he  is  permanently  injured,  pauperized,  robbed  of 
all  self-respect,  and  made  dependent. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  PROGRAM 

Neither  the  evangelistic  passion  which  many  have, 
nor  the  evangeHstic  message  which  many  give  will 
count  for  much,  at  least  will  not  count  for  most,  un- 
less there  is  an  evangelistic  program  commensurate 
with  the  passion  and  message.  There  is  no  use  of 
preaching  an  evangelistic  message  if  the  subjects  of 
evangelism  are  not  there,  no  need  for  calling  the  saints 
to  repentance,  or  explaining  the  conditions  of  conver- 
sion, or  pressing  the  claims  of  God  on  those  who  al- 
ready are  saved.  The  message  to  the  saved  is  for  bet- 
ter character  and  broader  service,  not  for  repentance 
and  conversion.  It  is  folly  to  ask  sinners  forward  to 
the  altar  when  there  is  not  a  sinner  in  the  house.  It 
is  more — it  is  farcical.  Neither  can  an  evangelistic 
pastor  do  much  in  an  unevangelistic  church.  Evangel- 
ism is  not  a  one-man  affair.  J[f_jthe_cliurdx_i^-.iiot 
interested,  cooperative,  and  sympathetic  in  its  attitude 
toward  the  whole  project  of  evangelism,  little  that 
is  of  permanent  value  can  be  accomplished.  To  bring 
new  converts  into  a  cold,  unsympathetic  church  is  to 
invite  backsliding  in  advance.  The  whole  church  must 
be  so  interested  in  the  work  of  conversion,  and  in  all 
the  preparatory  activities,  that  when  new  converts  are 
received  into  membership  they  will  not  feel  that  they 
are  becoming  parts  of  a  formal  institution  but  mem- 

19 


20  EVANGELISM 

bers  of  a  sympathetic  family.  When  the  church  loses 
its  family  idea  it  loses  its  power.  Christian  character 
cannot  grow  in  a  frigid,  uncongenial  environment.  The 
church  must  have  something  to  do  with  the  conversions 
if  it  expects  to  have  any  important  part  in  the  Chris- 
tian culture  and  service  of  those  who  are  converted 
and  brought  into  the  church  through  evangelistic  ef- 
fort. The  larger  the  number  engaged  in  evangelism, 
the  larger  number  of  interested  friends  will  the  new 
members  find  in  the  church.  The  church  must,  with 
the  pastor  as  leader,  have  an  evangelistic  policy  as  well 
as  a  social  or  financial  policy.  The  financial  policy  of 
the  best-organized  and  best  administered  churches  is 
that  of  the  pledge  system  secured  through  the  every- 
member  canvass.  That  is  made  easy  if  the  tithing 
system  or  some  other  such  plan  is  adopted.  The  aim 
is  to  give  everybody  interested  in  the  church  an  op- 
portunity to  help  support  it;  that  is,  the  policy  of  get- 
ting money  is  by  giving  opportunity  and  inviting  co- 
operation. 

The  second  feature  of  good  financial  poHcy  in  dis- 
pensing the  money  so  gotten  is  to  meet  all  obligations 
when  due,  showing  that  in  doing  business  for  God  the 
church  is  in  the  front  rank  of  business  integrity,  hon- 
esty, and  promptness.  A  church  may  have  all  that. 
Then  a  church  may  be  well  organized  as  to  its  boards, 
committees,  etc.,  to  carry  on  a  fine  social  and  recrea- 
tional program  in  the  community.  It  may  have  all 
that,  and  yet  that  church  may  have  no  evangelistic 
policy.  It  may  have  no  policy  to  make  it  as  evangelis- 
tically  efficient  as  it  is  financially  and  socially  efficient. 
The  church  by  personal  effort  gives  all  the  members 


THE  PROGRAM  21 

and  attendants  an  opportunity  to  support  it.  It  throws 
the  door  open  to  the  community  on  social  occasions, 
and  invites  the  people  of  the  community  to  enjoy  its 
social  life.  That  is  all  very  important.  But  is  there 
the  same  intentional  policy  to  reach  the  unconverted? 
Is  the  policy  of  the  church  one  that  extends  to  these 
people  the  same  opportunity  to  accept  or  refuse  the 
claims  of  Christ  that  it  gives  to  the  members  to  con- 
tribute or  not  contribute  to  its  support,  or  to  come  or 
not  to  come  to  the  social  activities  ?  In  matters  of  busi- 
ness the  church  is  precise.  If  it  owes  a  man  money,  it 
meets  its  obligation  promptly,  and  ought  to ;  but  will  it 
be  true,  after  that  is  done,  the  man  can  say,  "The 
church  paid  my  bill  but  is  not  interested  in  my  soul"  ? 
If  the  church  is  to  be  a  winning  force  for  the  Kingdom, 
it  must  have  an  evangelistic  policy.  What  shall  we  do 
this  year  to  reach  the  unsaved  of  the  community?  is 
a  more  vital  question  than  How  shall  we  advance  the 
church  in  its  financial  and  social  affairs? 

Evangelistic  Efficiency 

Now,  if  there  is  a  definite,  earnest  evangelistic  policy 
for  every  year,  and  that  policy  is  as  seriously  discussed 
as  any  other  part  of  the  church's  activity — indeed,  if 
it  is  made  the  main  business  of  the  church — it  will  issue 
in  a  practical  evangelistic  program.  Many  churches  do 
no  evangelistic  work  because  they  do  not  plan  for  it. 
It  is  not  a  part  of  their  policy.  The  unsaved  of  the 
community  should  be  reached  in  some  systematic  way, 
and  the  gospel  offered  to  them  either  by  personal 
workers  or  by  getting  them  to  come  to  the  church 
where  they  can  hear  the  evangelistic  message.     In  any 


22  EVANGELISM 

event  the  gospel  should  be  presented  to  them.  If  there 
is  a  policy  there  will  be  a  program.  The  program 
will  be  the  policy  reduced  to  action.  Every  good  busi- 
ness house  has  a  policy  to  reach  a  constituency,  to 
handle  goods,  to  expand  the  business  and  to  make 
profits.  The  church  which  is  doing,  or  supposed  to 
be  doing,  business  for  God,  ought  to  have  as  much 
sagacity  and  enterprise  in  religion,  extending  the  King- 
dom, getting  new  members,  building  up  old  ones,  and 
helping  new  and  old,  as  the  business  houses  conducted 
by  the  members  of  the  same  churches  have.  In  ex- 
tending trade  the  business  houses  put  salesmen  on  the 
road  who  will  secure  new  customers,  hold  old  ones,  put 
goods  on  the  market  which  the  public  want,  anticipate 
future  needs,  and  make  provision  to  be  first  on  the 
market  when  the  new  demands  arise.  That  is  busi- 
ness foresight,  commercial  sagacity.  When  a  method 
ceases  to  be  profitable  they  drop  it,  and  adopt  a  new 
method  that  is  profitable.  They  don't  hold  on  to  old 
methods  for  sentimental  reasons  when  they  no  longer 
work.  When  a  line  of  goods  ceases  to  be  in  demand 
or  marketable,  progressive  business  houses  will  not 
carry  it.  They  will  not  waste  time,  money,  and  space 
for  a  line  of  goods  that  will  not  sell.  Neither  will  they 
keep  on  the  road  or  behind  the  counter  the  man  who 
either  cannot  or  will  not  sell  goods.  He  must  do  busi- 
ness to  hold  his  place.  Good  business  men  will  not 
mark  time  as  a  policy.  They  do  it  only  as  an  emer- 
gency to  tide  over  a  period  of  depression.  In  advertis- 
ing their  goods  they  do  it  in  such  an  attractive  way  as 
to  create  a  desire  for  them.  Advertising  has  become 
not  only  an  extensive  business  in  itself,  but  a  fine  art. 


THE  PROGRAM  23 

That  creates  demand  which  stimulates  supply  and  so 
makes  business.  They  make  their  leaders  the  goods 
which  are  most  attractive  as  to  looks,  price,  and  utility. 
Defective  goods  do  not  get  into  their  show  windows. 
Often  the  most  attractive  goods  shown  in  the  windows 
are  not  marked  as  to  price,  so  as  to  get  people  into  the 
store  to  find  out;  then  they  buy.  These  methods  are 
legitimate  and  successful.  The  church  could  copy  all 
these  methods  and  adapt  them  to  its  spiritual  enter- 
prise with  great  profit. 

Church  Organization 

If  the  business  men  of  the  church  were  as  thoroughly 
up  to  date  and  efficient  in  the  work  of  their  church 
as  they  are  in  their  business,  nothing  in  the  world  could 
impede  the  progress  of  the  church.  The  only  way  to 
keep  a  passion  for  God's  work  alive  in  pulpit  or  pew  is^ 
to  have  it  issue  in  action.  And  the  success  of  action 
stimulates  more  action.  No  factory  could  be  run  on 
the  average  church  methods — twenty-five  per  cent  of 
the  operatives  working  and  seventy-five  per  cent  of 
them  looking  on.  Again,  in  the  church,  we  often  see 
the  same  small  group  doing  all  sorts  of  work.  In 
the  big  factory  one  man  does  one  thing  or  handles  one 
process,  and  he  does  so  as  an  expert.  Then  all  parts, 
each  turned  out  b}^  an  expert,  are  assembled,  and  the 
public  gets  the  benefit  of  the  perfect  product.  But  it 
takes  division  of  labor  and  specialization  of  skill  to  do 
it.  That  principle  is  not  well  observed  in  the  church. 
Here  is  an  opportunity  to  so  organize  the  church  that 
there  will  be  division  of  labor  and  specialization  of 
skill  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Kingdom  will  get  the 


24  EVANGELISM 

perfect  finished  product,  and  at  the  same  time  no  one 
will  be  burdened  in  its  production  as  he  is  in  many 
churches  now.  A  few  have  to  give  to  the  point  of 
sacrifice,  and  the  sacrifice  never  lets  up,  while  others, 
far  more  able  to  give,  do  not  give  at  all.  A  few  work 
to  the  point  of  drudgery,  which  never  ceases,  while 
other  people  of  far  more  leisure  and  greater  ability  to 
serve  do  little  or  nothing.  A  church  which  has  not  a 
better  temper  and  method  than  that  can  never  conquer 
a  community  for  God. 

So  in  some  communities  while  the  population  is 
increasing  the  church  is  diminishing,  not  relatively,  but 
absolutely;  and  where  this  happens  there  will  be  a 
church  with  a  seating  capacity  of  twelve  hundred  or 
more,  having  a  morning  congregation — considered 
good — of  a  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred,  and  an 
evening  congregation  of  seventy-five  to  one  hundred, 
and  this  despite  the  fact  that  the  community  is  now 
three  or  four  times  as  large  as  it  was  when  there 
was  a  congregation  that  filled  the  church.  It  is  not 
for  lack  of  folks  that  the  church  is  nearly  empty,  but 
because  it  has  not  a  program  to  reach  the  people  that 
are  all  about  it.  That  is  not  an  uncommon  experience. 
The  personnel  of  the  community  may  be  a  good  deal 
changed,  but  the  church  is  to  minister  to  all  sorts  of 
people.  It  has  missionaries  in  all  lands,  but  when  all 
lands  come  to  the  church  it  is  not  organized  to  do  for 
the  foreigner  on  the  home  field  what  it  does  for  him 
on  the  foreign  field.  When  the  church  goes  to  him  it 
has  a  plan  to  help  him,  but  when  he  comes  to  the 
church  it  seems  to  have  no  plan  to  help  him.  The 
business  house  often  does  the  same  thing  the  church 


THE  PROGRAM  25 

does — it  moves  uptown.  But  the  business  that  stays 
on  the  ground  and  succeeds  is  the  house  that  handles 
the  goods  which  that  community  needs  and  can  afford 
to  buy  and  will  buy.  The  community  supports  the 
business.  The  business  adapts  its  methods  to  the  con- 
ditions. Some  business  must  remain,  for  those  people 
have  to  live  as  well  as  the  uptown  and  suburban  people. 
But  these  people  have  both  to  live  and  to  die,  and 
the  church  has  the  same  opportunity  to  save  them  that 
business  has  to  serve  them.  If  the  church  is  to  gQt 
them  as  business  gets  their  money,  politicians  get  their 
votes,  places  of  amusement  get  their  attendance,  and 
the  schools  get  their  children,  then  it  must  adapt  itself 
to  the  prevailing  conditions  just  as  other  institutions 
do.  And  every  community  will  have  its  own  pecu- 
liarities, so  that  no  one  method  can  be  of  universal 
application.  The  church  must  study  its  own  com- 
munity to  find  out  its  strength  and  weakness,  its" 
needs  and  viewpoints,  its  possibilities  and  perils,  and 
then  seriously  try  to  put  over  a  program  that  will  suit 
the  situation  and  present  the  gospel  to  them  in  the  best 
possible  way.  If  the  commission  is  to  "'Go  into  all 
the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature," 
some  churches  will  have  to  undertake  the  discipling  of 
that  great  mass  of  unchurched  people  which  other 
churches  have  left  uncared  for.  It  is  a  hard  task  but  a 
wonderful  opportunity.  Such  a  church  will  be  chas- 
tened with  the  discipline  of  the  disagreeable,  but  such 
a  community  once  won  will  make  the  church  a  saving 
factor  with  which  the  world  must  not  only  reckon 
but  with  which  it  will  be  glad  to  reckon,  and  perhaps 
cooperate.     What  the  world  wants  to  see  is  work  ac- 


26  EVANGELISM 

tually  done.  It  does  not  care  much  for  ideals.  Now, 
if  the  church  can  do  the  work  by  its  ideals,  it  will  get 
the  world's  attention  and  be  able  to  show  the  world 
its  ideals  through  its  work. 

The  Church  and  the  Outside  Man 

The  church  has  a  real  interest  in  the  outside  man, 
but  it  has  not  always  shown  its  interest  by  any  sort  of 
organized  or  sustained  effort  to  reach  him  and  win 
him,  so  he  thinks  that  the  church  has  no  interest  in 
him.  Theoretically,  the  church  is  interested  in  every 
man  that  Jesus  is  interested  in,  and  the  problem  is  to 
show  that  interest  by  a  sacrificial  service  as  Jesus  did. 
The  outside  man  may  try  to  crucify  the  church  as  the 
world  did  Jesus,  but  the  church  can  no  more  be  de- 
stroyed than  Jesus  could  be  destroyed,  if  it  is  animated 
by  his  spirit  and  he  is  its  real  Head.  If  the  church 
really  senses  its  evangelistic  opportunity  so  that  it  now 
represents  "Christianity  in  earnest,"  great  work  would 
be  done  in  building  the  new  world.  All  of  the  church 
all  the  time  at  some  form  of  evangelistic  work  would 
transform  the  world. 

The  Christian  is  saved  to  serve.  Our  part  of  that 
service  is  to  get  others  to  Christ  and  thus  extend  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  world.  The  test  by  which  the 
disciple  of  Christ  is  to  be  recognized  by  all  men  as 
given  by  Christ  himself  was,  '*A  new  commandment 
give  I  unto  you,  That  ye  love  one  another;  as  I  have 
loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one  another.  By  this  shall 
all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love 
one  to  another"  (John  13.  34,  35).  Much  more  will  all 
men  recognize  the  Christian  as  Christ's  man,  when  his 


THE  PROGRAM  27 

love  extends  beyond  his  brethren,  even  to  all  men. 
Only  the  real  Christian  can  love  all  men.  It  is  not 
human  nature  to  do  it.  Only  the  grace  of  God  and  the 
spirit  of  Christ  will  make  it  possible  for  the  Christian 
to  do  it.  It  takes  a  real  Christ-ruled  church  to  give 
the  poor  and  ignorant  a  real  welcome  and  make  them 
feel  at  home  in  it.  That  is  perhaps  one  of  the  ob- 
stacles which  the  church  has  to  overcome.  It  will  have 
to  reduce  its  theory  of  brotherly  love  to  practice,  yet 
that  is  what  discipleship  with  Christ  means. 

Pastoral  Visiting 

Parish  visitation  both  by  pastor  and  people  gives  the 
church  a  great  evangelistic  opportunity  too  often  over- 
looked both  by  pastor  and  people.  It  is  not  enough  to 
merely  make  pastoral  or  social  calls  in  a  routine  way. 
The  parish  is  to  be  canvassed  for  souls  with  an  ob- 
jective as  clearly  defined  as  when  an  insurance  solicitor 
canvasses  a  community  for  business,  or  when  the 
church  makes  an  every-member  canvass  for  money.  If 
the  central  policy  of  the  whole  church  is  evangelism,  all 
of  its  organizations  will  have  that  as  their  ultimate 
aim  in  all  their  activities.  If  parish  activities  empha- 
size evangelism  in  such  a  way  that  the  aroused  people 
will  come  to  the  church  on  Sunday  and  be  converted, 
the  Sunday  evening  problem  will  be  solved.  No  serv- 
ice is  more  popular  than  the  one  in  which  people  are 
being  saved,  and  members  of  the  church  who  have  been 
diligent  in  sowing  seed  during  the  week  will  be  in  the 
service  on  Sunday  evening  for  the  harvesting  of  their 
sowing.  That  in  turn  will  create  a  greater  desire  to 
go  out  next  week  and  follow  that  work  up  till  it  be- 


28  EVANGELISM 

comes  the  habit  of  the  church.  If  the  prayer  meeting 
is  made  the  place  of  report  on  what  is  done  from  week 
to  week,  as  well  as  for  earnest  prayer  that  greater 
works  may  follow,  the  prayer  meeting  problem  will 
largely  be  solved.  When  the  spiritual  has  the  right  of 
way  in  the  church,  every  other  interest  of  the  church 
will  best  be  served. 

There  is  great  danger  that  in  the  multiplying  of 
methods  and  the  increasing  of  church  machinery  the 
spiritual,  which,  after  all,  is  the  conserving  element, 
will  be  left  out — a  case  of  "more  harness  than  horse," 
more  machine  than  power.  This  must  be  guarded 
against  at  every  point. 

It  is  so  easy  to  take  the  spiritual  for  granted  that  no 
provision  will  be  made  for  it,  and  as  a  consequence  the 
church  becomes  a  club,  with  many  excellent  things  it 
is  true,  but  without  saving  power.  In  such  circum- 
stances the  help  it  brings  to  society  is  not  constructive. 
It  will  be  dealing  with  effects  and  not  removing  causes. 
If  religion  is  kept  an  affair  of  Sunday  only,  it  will  not 
meet  the  challenge  of  the  new  age.  If  the  church 
Christianizes  the  community,  it  will  be  by  making  re- 
ligion a  matter  of  everyday  life.  Religion  must  enter 
into  and  control  all  human  activities.  The  evangelistic 
policy  of  the  church  will  help  toward  that  end,  by 
showing  that  religion  is  neither  foreign  nor  hostile  to 
any  human  interest,  but,  rather,  that  it  promotes  all 
real  human  interests.  Men  ought  to  be  able  to  talk 
about  religion  as  naturally  as  they  do  about  the 
weather,  or  business,  or  any  other  human  interest.  If 
it  is  kept  as  something  too  sacred  to  be  used,  like  some 
family  Bibles  on  the  musty  tables  of  unused  parlors,  it 


THE  PROGRAM  29 

neither  will  get  into  men's  thinking  nor  practice,  and  it 
will  continue  as  a  thing  apart,  which  may  be  enjoyed 
occasionally  as  a  luxury  but  not  practiced  as  a  funda- 
mental rule  of  conduct.  Men  are  not  afraid  of  religion 
when  they  begin  to  live  it,  and  to  live  it  in  the  spirit 
of  Christ  is  the  best  silent  force  for  evangelism  there 
is.  Men  of  all  creeds  and  no  creeds  recognize  Chris- 
tianity when  they  see  it  lived.  And  a  life  of  goodness 
is  one  argument  that  no  man  can  answer.  The  church 
must  interest  itself  in  all  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity, and  that  will  go  a  long  way  toward  getting 
a  sympathetic  hearing  from  the  community. 

Practical  Religion 

A  rough  man  who  had  no  love  for  nor  interest  in  the 
church  brought  his  little  girl  to  the  writer's  Sunday 
school,  and  one  of  the  superintendents  invited  him 
into  the  school.  He  replied,  "I  don't  take  any  stock  in 
religion,  but  I  am  interested  in  the  institution  that  got 
my  boy  a  job."  That  Sunday  school  had  an  employ- 
ment bureau  which  was  very  successful.  The  Sunday 
school  got  a  chance  at  the  man  because  it  got  his  boy 
a  job.  It  was  interested  in  things  that  were  very  hu- 
man. The  approach  must  often  be  made  through  self- 
interest.  It  is  a  very  important  thing  for  the  church 
to  get  young  people  work,  and  have  an  oversight  of 
them  in  the  years  of  their  inexperience.  They  need  a 
friend  then,  for  it  is  at  that  time  that  they  start  on 
careers  that  are  either  right  or  wrong.  Christ  is  to 
be  made  the  King  of  all  life. 

A  splendid  example  of  a  country  parish  with  a  real 
program  is  The  Larger  Benzonia  Parish,  Michigan. 


30  EVANGELISM 

Three  good  examples  of  city  churches  that  have  pro- 
grams are  Central  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  De- 
troit, Michigan ;  Dr.  Helms's  Institutional  Church  (Mor- 
gan Memorial),  and  the  Old  First  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  both  in  Boston.  In  these  parishes  there  is 
much  valuable  work  done  that  is  purely  social  and 
moral,  but  the  objective  in  all  the  activities  is  the  spirit- 
ual. The  other  things  are  means  to  an  end,  but  the  end 
is  to  get  men  rightly  related  to  God,  to  bring  them  un- 
der the  Kingship  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  church  that  fails 
in  that  fails  in  all  permanent  and  adequate  betterment 
of  mankind.  If  Christ  only  fed  the  multitude  and  healed 
the  sick,  and  defended  the  weak  against  the  strong,  the 
world  would  remain  unsaved.  It  would  have  been  only 
temporarily  relieved,  and  when  his  personal  pressure 
was  off,  it  would  lapse  back  to  where  it  was  before. 
Permanent  betterment  in  that  way  could  only  be  main- 
tained by  the  sustained  miracle  of  Christ's  personal 
pressure  on  the  external  and  material  interests  of  man. 
His  feeding  and  healing  were  means  to  the  end  that 
he  might  save  them  from  sin,  and  bring  them  into 
right  relations  to  God  and  man,  but  he  did  relieve  tem- 
poral needs.  Christ's  main  object  was  to  get  men 
so  recreated  in  their  personality  that  they  would  be 
capable  of  making  a  better  world  in  which  to  live.  That 
must  be  the  main  business  of  the  church — to  make  good 
men,  and  good  men  will  make  a  good  world.  To 
make  good  men  attention  must  be  given  to  the  whole 
man,  environment  and  all.  The  object  is  to  save  the 
whole  man — not  a  disembodied  spirit,  not  an  upright 
animal,  but  a  real  man  made  in  the  image  of  God  and 
destined  to  be  a  real  son  of  God. 


THE  PROGRAM  31 

The  church  must  not  be  afraid  of  establishing  prece- 
dents, nor  of  departing  from  old  ones  whenever  it  is 
necessary.  If  the  old  method  does  not  get  people  to 
God  drop  it.  If  a  new  one  does,  no  matter  how  much 
it  may  be  criticized,  if  it  really  gets  men  to  God,  adopt 
it,  work  it,  talk  it  up,  magnify  it.  There  is  no  sanc- 
tity in  method.  The  test  of  the  divineness  of  methods 
is  that  they  work,  that  they  produce  results  consistent 
with  divineness.  If  an  old  method  will  still  work,  but 
has  been  abandoned  because  it  was  old,  revive  it  and 
use  it  and  silence  criticism  by  results.  A  criticism  that 
flies  in  the  face  of  results  is  only  fault-finding, 
prompted  by  ignorance,  prejudice,  or  maliciousness, 
and  need  not  be  noticed,  much  less  answered.  That 
kind  of  criticism  answers  itself  in  time  by  destroying 
itself. 

The  Church  the  Community  Center 

The  efiforts  that  are  now  put  forth  to  make  the 
church  the  community  center  will  work  great  good 
for  the  Kingdom  and  be  a  powerful  evangelistic  force 
if  first  things  are  kept  first.  If  the  spiritual  is  kept 
foremost,  nothing  can  stop  an  organized,  aggressive, 
earnest  church.  When  making  a  house-to-house  can- 
vass of  the  parish  with  the  evangelistic  motive,  it  is  easy 
to  learn  many  important  lessons  of  how  the  church  can 
supplement  the  home.  If  the  home  has  no  music,  yet 
has  music  lovers;  or  if  there  are  no  books,  but  book 
lovers;  if  the  members  of  the  home  work  but  have  no 
wholesome  recreation,  that  is  the  church's  opportunity 
through  some  of  its  organizations,  and  in  some  of  its 


32  EVANGELISM 

rooms,  to  furnish  the  things  that  are  lacking  in  the 
home.  That  is  good  rehgion  as  well  as  good  social 
service. 

A  good  way  to  the  soul  of  a  boy  or  man  is  to  get  his 
body  to  the  church.  His  sense  of  obligation  for  value 
received  often  will  make  him,  at  the  proper  time,  ap- 
proachable on  the  matter  of  religion.  A  church  whose 
habit  is  to  minister  to  the  highest  needs  of  men  will 
not  have  to  go  out  of  its  way  to  make  religion  the  fore- 
most matter.  People  will  expect  it  and  will  not  feel  im- 
posed upon  when  it  is  presented  to  them,  for  that  is 
what  the  church  is  doing  all  the  time,  and  everybody 
knows  it.  The  church  is  consistent  with  itself.  If, 
however,  the  church  is  interested  in  spiritual  matters 
only  one  month  in  the  year  sufficiently  to  put  forth 
systematic  efforts  to  reach  people  during  that  one 
month,  it  is  easy  and  natural  to  construe  such  efforts  as 
baits  to  get  people  to  church  in  order  to  thrust  religion 
at  them.  Such  action  is  not  a  genuine  expression  of 
the  church's  interest  in  their  everyday  lives.  That  is 
always  the  danger  of  the  spasmodic  efforts.  The  com- 
munity looks  upon  them  as  high-pressure  methods  to 
get  people  into  the  church  for  its  own  sake  rather  to 
get  them  to  God  for  their  own  sake.  The  church  with 
a  constant  evangelistic  policy  and  program  never  has  to 
apologize  for  its  method  nor  explain  why,  at  occasional 
seasons  only,  the  spiritual  is  put  forward.  People  will 
be  converted  right  along  in  such  a  church  in  its  most 
normal  activity.  The  older  notion  of  evangelism,  which 
meant  the  salvation  of  the  soul  from  sin,  that  taught 
that  the  sanctification  of  the  soul  lay  in  the  mortifica- 
tion of  the  body,  tended  to  narrow  the  scope  of  the 


THE  PROGRAM  33 

church's  activity.     The  revival  was  the  only  evangel- 
istic effort  of  the  year. 

Everyday  Evangelism 

But  the  modern  view  of  evangelism,  which  cares  for 
the  salvation  of  the  soul  as  much  as  the  older  form 
did,  and  in  addition  cares  for  the  redemption  of  the 
body,  the  home,  the  business,  the  recreation — in  a  word, 
the  whole  life  of  man  in  all  its  interests  and  relations, 
which  the  older  form  often  did  not,  widens  the  scope 
of  evangelism  and  gives  vastly  more  points  of  contact 
with  the  man  on  the  outside.  It  shows  a  far  more 
minute  interest  in  him,  and  thus  increases  in  a  very 
large  degree  evangelistic  opportunity.  A  man  is  not 
apt  to  think  much  about  his  soul  when  he  cannot  feed 
his  family.  The  evangelistic  approach  to  that  man 
will  not  be  a  call  to  repent  of  his  sins.  It  will  issue 
in  that,  but  he  must  be  approached  along  the  line  of 
need  that  is  most  real  and  pressing  to  him  from  his 
viewpoint.  It  may  be  said  that  the  evangelist  must 
bring  the  man  to  his  point  of  view  before  he  can  be 
saved.  That  is  true  enough,  because  the  man's  own 
point  of  view  did  not  .save  him.  But  before  the  evan- 
gelist can  get  a  frank,  unbiased  hearing  from  the  man 
he  must  meet  him  on  his  own  ground.  Having  won 
his  confidence  by  sympathy,  he  can  lead  him  to  higher 
things,  but  he  cannot  lift  him  to  higher  things  if  the 
man  feels  that  the  evangelist  is  in  another  world  and 
does  not  understand  him  nor  care  for  him  or  his 
world. 

The  time  was  when  the  evangelistic  effort  was  made 
to  save  men's  souls.    It  must  now  be  made  to  save  their 


34  EVANGELISM 

lives.  Salvation  is  a  much  larger  thing  than  the  for- 
giveness of  sins.  The  forgiveness  of  sins,  however,  is 
basic  to  all  else  that  is  done ;  but  that  forgiveness  must 
issue  in  the  moral  action  that  involves  all  the  life  in 
its  individual  and  collective  expression. 

There  is  a  sort  of  undefined  life  that  we  call  com- 
munity life,  or  crowd  life,  that  is  more  than  the  sum 
total  of  all  the  individual  lives.  It  seems  to  be  a 
case  of  "The  whole  is  more  than  the  sum  of  all  its 
parts."  But  the  community  life  which  seems  to  be  in 
excess  of  the  sum  of  all  the  individual  lives  that  make 
up  the  community  is  a  life  that  is  not  apparently  a  part 
of  any  individual  life.  It  is  a  sort  of  atmosphere  of 
the  whole.  That  atmosphere  must  be  wholesome,  or 
religious  life  cannot  flourish  in  it.  That  atmosphere 
is  produced  by  many  things  as  subtle  as  itself  in  their 
workings.  Food,  clothing,  wages,  housing,  recreation 
all  play  an  important  part  in  the  reHgious  life  of  a  com- 
munity— indeed,  in  the  life  of  the  individual.  Religion 
is  life's  expression  at  its  best.  No  life  can  be  at  its 
best  which  is  underfed  or  overfed,  badly  housed,  over- 
worked, which  is  not  properly  and  comfortably  clothed, 
and  which  has  no  time  nor  desire  for  natural  and 
wholesome  recreation  or  worship.  It  takes  some  de- 
gree of  comfort  to  put  men  in  a  frame  of  mind  com- 
patible with  worship.  Formerly  too  little  attention  was 
paid  to  this  group  of  human  necessities  in  the  matter  of 
religion.  If  a  man's  sins  were  forgiven  and  his  past 
made  right  with  God,  that  was  all  that  was  necessary 
even  though  his  present  life  was  economically  and  so- 
cially intolerable.  A  person  must  be  comfortable  and 
free  from  constant  anxiety  in  order  to  have  a  natural 


THE  PROGRAM  35 

and  hopeful  view  of  life.  The  lack  of  that  sort  of  life 
put  great  emphasis  on  the  hope  of  heaven,  and  men 
longed  to  get  out  of  the  miseries  of  this  world  and 
be  at  rest  in  heaven.  To-day  we  must  try  to  drive  as 
much  misery  as  we  can  out  of  this  world  and  make  it 
a  decent  and  happy  place  in  which  to  live,  and  so  make 
religion  more  of  a  present  joy  and  power  than  a  future 
hope.  Hope  ought  never  to  go  out  of  the  other  life, 
nor  joy  out  of  this  life.  This  world  ought  to  be  made 
so  good  and  life  so  worth  while  that  people  would  not 
want  to  die  in  order  to  get  rid  of  tragedies,  nor  to  get 
out  of  the  world  in  which  living  conditions  were  un- 
bearable. 

Evangelism  must  aim  at  establishing  the  kingdom  of 
"Gud  liefe'TrTthe  earth.  We  ought  to  want  to  live  as 
long  and  serve  as  well  as  we  can.  That  is  what  a 
wholesome  religion  will  fit  men  to  do.  Men  must  get 
rid  of  all  morbid  notions  of  religion.  Our  Father  God 
wills  only  best  things  for  us,  and  we  must  will  and 
work  best  things  for  one  another.  So  religion  must 
sanctify  all  relationships.  Under  a  true  conception  of 
brotherhood  no  man  would  wrong  another,  nor  even 
desire  to  wrong  him. 

It  means  a  good  deal  more  to  a  community  to  have 
a  revival  in  it  than  just  to  throw  open  the  doors  of 
the  church  for  a  few  weeks  and  have  a  large  number 
of  people  converted,  and  yet  leave  untouched  most  of 
the  unwholesome  conditions  and  institutions  of  the 
community.  Such  revival  activity  permits  many,  if 
not  most,  of  the  converts  to  lapse  into  a  state  that 
makes  them  harder  to  reach  than  they  were  at  first. 
People  sometimes  talk  as  though  social  evangelism  and 


Z6  EVANGELISM 

spiritual  evangelism  were  two  different  things.  Any 
evangelism  that  deals  with  the  whole  life  must  com- 
bine the  two.  All  evangelism  is  spiritual,  and  it  may 
be  personal  and  social.  An  evangelism  that  does  not 
better  the  community  is  not  worth  while.  It  is  time 
for  us  to  put  more  emphasis  on  the  permanent  results  of 
evangelistic  efiPorts. 

In  helping  to  rebuild  the  world,  evangelism  has  its 
greatest  opportunity  and  also  its  greatest  task.  If  the 
church  has  been  discounted  by  the  war,  it  must  be  rein- 
stated in  the  love  and  confidence  of  the  world  by  the 
scope,  worth,  and  efficiency  of  its  evangelistic  pro- 
gram.   Life  must  be  brought  to  its  best. 

If  men  on  the  outside  look  askance  at  the  church, 
it  is  either  because  they  misunderstand  its  functions 
or  else  because  they  think  it  is  not  interested  in  them. 
If  they  think  that  the  whole  business  of  the  church  is 
to  champion  their  material  interests,  that  it  is  to  be  in- 
terested only  in  wages,  and  rent  and  food,  then  they  do 
not  understand  it.  The  church  has  a  far  bigger  business 
than  that  in  the  world.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
church  has  looked  upon  the  man  on  the  outside  as  a 
soul  that  needs  to  be  saved,  and  not  a  whole  man  who 
needs  to  be  redeemed  and  saved  to  the  best  there  is  for 
him  in  this  world  and  in  any  other  world,  unless  it  deals 
with  him  as  a  man  in  his  entirety,  then  the  church  mis- 
understands the  man. 

One  of  the  very  serious  problems  that  the  church  has 
to  face  is  when  a  boy  or  girl  from  a  bad  home  becomes 
a  Christian.  Sometimes  that  one  Christian  will  Chris- 
tianize the  whole  household,  but  it  too  often  happens 
that  the  Christian  life  withers  and  dies  in  such  an  un- 


THE  PROGRAM  37 

favorable  environment.  The  social  aspect  of  the  evan- 
gelism which  saves  the  boy  or  girl  transforms  the 
home.  So  of  the  factory  or  store.  We  live  a  life  of 
interdependence,  and  never  more  so  than  now,  and  we 
will  never  revert  to  the  old-fashioned  life  of  independ- 
ence. We  shall  become  more  and  more  interdepend- 
ent, and  we  must  reckon  with  that  in  our  evangelistic 
work.  Human  solidarity  must  be  reckoned  with  more 
than  ever  in  an}^  attempt  to  better  the  world.  Society 
cannot  continue  to  have  apoplexy  at  the  head  and 
anemia  at  the  feet — extravagant  luxury  and  despair- 
ing poverty  in  those  extremities  of  the  social  body — 
and  the  world  still  have  a  good  life,  or  the  church  a  fair 
chance. 

The  Individual  and  the  Crowd 

Of  course  the  individual  must  never  be  lost  in  the 
mass,  or  all  will  be  lost.  You  can  no  more  have 
a  successful  crowd  result  without  attention  to 
the  individual  than  you  can  have  a  crop  of 
corn  if  the  individual  stalks  do  not  produce 
ears.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  crop  apart  from  the 
individual  ears.  The  crop  is  a  very  concrete  thing. 
Your  crowd  result  will  be  no  more  potent  if  the  in- 
dividual is  left  out  of  the  account.  But  individual 
betterment  must  be  carried  on  so  widely  and  wisely 
that  it  will  issue  in  social  betterment.  Unrelated  and 
ungrouped  individuals  will  do  little  toward  bettering 
society  or  bringing  in  the  Kingdom.  Each  for  all  and 
all  for  each  must  always  be  the  law,  in  the  large,  of 
the  Kingdom. 

The  prophets  were  national  figures.    They  preached 


38  EVANGELISM 

a  national  gospel,  they  pleaded  for  national  righteous- 
ness, they  denounced  national  sin;  but  they  also  dealt 
with  individuals  in  a  most  direct  way.  The  apostles 
too  in  a  way  were  national  figures,  but  their  nation 
was  the  kingdom  of  God.  Nothing  can  be  more  prac- 
tical, nor  of  greater  social  moment  than  the  teaching  of 
Paul  in  First  and  Second  Corinthians,  Ephesians,  First 
and  Second  Timothy,  Titus,  and  Philemon,  where  he 
shows  the  practical  bearing  of  religion  on  every  phase 
of  individual  and  corporate  life  and  duty.  The  great 
evangelists  were  interested  in  folks. 

The  law  of  love,  which  is  the  law  of  the  Kingdom, 
has  an  upward  and  outward  application — upward  to 
God  and  outward  to  man.  They  go  together.  In 
this  type  of  evangelism  extremists  will  have  little  in- 
terest. To  one  class  of  extremists  it  will  not  be  re- 
ligious enough;  to  the  other  class  it  will  be  too  re- 
ligious to  be  either  acceptable  or  effective.  One  class 
would  rather  see  ten  people  sanctified  than  one  hun- 
dred converted,  and  the  other  would  rather  see  ten 
people  fed  or  have  their  wages  increased  than  one  hun- 
dred converted.  But  an  evangelism  that  deals  with 
the  whole  man  will  be  interested  in  food,  wages,  con- 
version, and  sanctification.  And  what  is  aimed  at  for 
the  individual  man  is  aimed  at  for  the  whole  com- 
munity. The  effort  is  to  get  the  will  of  God  done,  and 
God's  ideal  for  human  life  realized  in  the  earth,  rather 
than  to  build  up  any  church  or  other  institution,  which 
will  only  be  a  temporary  expedient.  As  far  as  the 
church  realizes  this  Kingdom  ideal,  it  ceases  to  be  a 
temporary  expedient  and  becomes  a  permanent  factor 
in  the  betterment  of  mankind,  and  is  indispensable  to 


THE  PROGRAM  39 

the  good  of  the  race.  Such  a  church  the  world  must 
have,  and  when  it  arrives  the  world  will  cease  to  say 
the  days  of  the  church  are  numbered. 
*  It  aims  at  making  all  human  relations — religious, 
domestic,  social,  economic,  political,  national,  and  in- 
ternational— right.  Its  aim  is  not  so  much  to  get 
people  to  do  some  religious  work,  but  to  do  all  work 
religiously.  That  is  a  large  program,  but  it  is  the 
only  program  that  seems  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the 
world.  Better  men  and  women  in  a  better  world — that 
is  the  aim. 

The  evangelist  must  be  prophet,  teacher,  statesman, 
patriot,  and  Christian,  and  no  irresponsible  group  of 
small  prejudiced  people  under  the  name  "evangelist'* 
ought  to  be  allowed  to  usurp  his  place.  They  can't 
take  his  place  and  fill  it.  At  most  they  usurp  it.  The 
standards  of  evangelism  must  be  so  high  that  only  the 
best,  most  brotherly,  most  sacrificial  men  will  go  into  it 
as  a  profession.  That  will  give  the  pastor  the  best 
help  when  he  needs  it  and  will  put  before  him  an  ideal 
toward  which  he  will  be  constantly  striving.  The 
habit  that  prevails  in  some  quarters  of  making  the 
minister  whom  the  churches  do  not  want  and  the 
cabinet  cannot  place  Conference  evangelist  is  a  very 
doubtful  church  policy.  He  cheapens  evangelism  and 
discourages  young  ministers  from  being  known  as 
evangelistic  pastors.  The  whole  thing  is  discredited. 
If  he  is  good  for  nothing  else,  to  make  an  evangelist 
out  of  him  is  bad.  If  he  is  too  big  for  anything  else, 
give  him  the  biggest  thing  there  is,  the  position  of  pas- 
tor-evangelist, or  evangelistic  pastor.  The  man  who 
sees  the  size  and  the  greatness  of  an  evangelism  which 


40  EVANGELISM 

actually  brings  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  gets  God's 
will  done  in  the  earth,  is  in  the  biggest,  most  perma- 
nent, and  most  important  work  in  the  world.  To  get 
all  the  will  of  God  done  in  all  human  affairs  is  the 
master  work  of  the  world.  This  evangelism  may 
climax  in  a  few  weeks'  meeting,  for  a  harvesting  time, 
but  it  goes  on  the  whole  year  through,  and  there  is  no 
part  of  the  community  that  does  not  feel  its  power.  It 
centers  in  the  church,  but  it  radiates  to  all  the  com- 
munity. 

Constructive  Evangelism 

The  evangelistic  attitude  must  be  positive  and  con- 
structive. It  is  not  enough  to  tell  men  that  they  must 
give  up  their  sin  and  quit  the  haunts  of  evildoing, 
and  then  leave  them  in  the  same  old  environment  with 
nothing  to  do  except  follow  a  very  indefinite  sugges- 
tion— ''Serve  the  Lord."  That  does  not  mean  much 
to  a  man  just  up  out  of  sin,  for  he  does  not  know  how 
to  serve  the  Lord.  He  hopes  some  day  to  get  to 
heaven  and  away  from  the  temptation  and  torment  of 
the  things  in  which  he  once  lived,  but  his  home 
and  his  neighborhood  and  his  neighbors  and  his 
employment  are  all  against  him.  The  negative  policy 
is  not  sufficient.  Indeed,  the  church  has  put  too  much 
emphasis  on  its  "don'ts"  and  too  little  on  its  "do-es." 
The  negative  emphasis  would  not  have  been  too  great 
had  it  been  properly  balanced  by  the  positive. 

Our  missionaries  would  have  very  small  success  if 
they  did  no  more  to  reconstruct  the  whole  life  of  their 
converts  than  we  do  here  at  home.  The  missionaries 
build  for  their  converts  a  whole  new  world.     They 


THE  PROGRAM  41 

must  create  a  new  environment  in  which  the  new  Hfe 
can  develop  and  propagate  itself.  Their  program, 
where  it  is  most  successful,  is  a  cooperative  and  con- 
structive program.  The  home  life  and  industrial  life 
of  these  new  Christians  are  very  vital  matters  with  the 
missionary.  The  evangelistic  work  is  only  just  begun 
when  the  conversion  is  secured.  With  us  it  often  ends 
just  there.  (But  more  of  this  in  the  chapter  where 
the  culture  of  the  Christian  is  considered.) 

Whether  at  home  or  on  the  foreign  field,  the  drive  of 
a  positive  gospel  which  is  made  urgent  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Jesus  Christ  is  one  of  the  most  controlling 
and  compelling  factors  in  evangelism.  This  city  must 
be  saved ;  this  man  must  be  reached ;  this  evil  must  be 
suppressed.  That  will  give  everybody  something  to 
do,  and  being  united  in  a  common  work  for  human 
weal  and  being  urged  by  a  devotion  to  Jesus  Christ 
will  cement  them  together  in  a  real  brotherhood  as 
nothing  else  will.  They  serve  their  own  best  interest 
when  they  promote  the  interest  of  everybody  else.  The 
Christian  must  be  as  aggressive  with  the  Spirit  as  the 
Mohammedan  is  with  the  sword.  Evangelism  mus^^ 
be  aggressive. 

The  time  was  when  all  sorts  of  people  would  come 
to  the  church  when  the  revival  was  on.  That  is  not 
true  in  any  large  way  to-day.  Now  the  revival  must 
go  where  the  people  are  if  they  will  not  come  to  it. 
Under  the  compelling  power  of  moral  urgency  which 
expressed  itself  in  Christ's  hfe  by  the  rugged  word 
"must,"  the  evangelistic  message  must  be  delivered,  and 
the  evangelistic  program  must  be  carried  out.  As 
some  one  has  said,  "The  best  defense  is  a  vigorous  at- 


42  EVANGELISM 

tack" ;  so  of  the  church — when  it  ceases  to  be  aggres- 
sive it  ceases  to  be  powerful. 

V  The  love  of  Christ  is  the  controlling  motive  in  evan- 
gelism. It  is  that  love  for  men  which  Christ  had  that 
creates  the  moral  urgency  of  the  church.  Of  course 
there  is  always  in  the  background  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation.  The  church  knows  if  it  cannot  Chris- 
tianize the  world,  the  world  will  paganize  the  church. 
But  this  fight  for  self-preservation  is  not  the  compel- 
ling motive.  The  church  which  has  caught  Christ's 
spirit  will  love  men  for  their  own  sakes  enough  to 
spend  and  be  spent  for  their  salvation.  After  Paul's 
great  climax  in  Rom.  8.  33-39  he  confesses  that  he 
has  a  continual  pain  in  his  heart  because  Israel  is  not 
saved.  Again,  he  said  that  he  could  wish  himself  ac- 
cursed if  only  that  would  mean  the  salvation  of  his 
brethren.  See  Rom.  9.  1-3.  It  is  that  passion  which  sent 
Christ  to  the  cross  and  the  martyrs  to  their  death  that 
must  dominate  the  minister  if  he  is  ever  to  be  a  great 
evangelist.  But  he  must  feel  the  same  compassion  for 
hungry,  tired,  and  wronged  people  that  Christ  did,  and 
with  Christ's  fine  indignation  strike  every  institution  of 
human  oppression  and  ruin  like  a  thunderbolt.  That  is 
the  kind  of  evangelism  that  a  greed-loving,  ease-living, 
sin-loving  age  like  this  needs. 

But  the  men  "higher  up"  need  the  gospel  too,  and  it 
takes  far  more  courage  to  break  social  conventions,  to 
go  to  them  and  say,  "Thou  art  the  man,"  than  it  does 
to  found  a  rescue  mission  for  the  "scum  of  the  city." 
Very  often  it  is  because  the  men  "higher  up"  in  wealth 
and  culture  and  power  are  not  evangelized,  that  there 
are  so  many  who  are  "down  and  out."    They  may  be 


THE  PROGRAM  43 

running  "down  and  out"  factories.  These  men  are 
hard  to  reach  because  of  their  social  station  and  finan- 
cial protection.  But  evangelism  takes  no  note  of  these 
artificial  distinctions  which  separate  men.  Its  business 
is  to  get  all  men  to  do  the  will  of  God  in  all  things. 
Men  on  the  avenue  as  well  as  men  in  the  alleys  need 
to  know  that  Jesus  is  King,  and  is  King  of  all  life, 
all  relations,  all  properties,  all  institutions.  If  the  tene- 
ments need  the  gospel,  so  do  the  mansions,  and  the  more 
the  mansions  are  evangelized  the  easier  it  will  be  to 
evangelize  the  tenements.  The  tenement  group  think 
the  evangelist  is  afraid  of  the  mansion  group. 

The  problems  cannot  be  solved  by  the  closet  phil- 
osopher, nor  by  the  drawing-room  saint.  They  must 
be  solved  by  prophets  "who  fear  nothing  but  God  and 
hate  nothing  but  sin,"  who  will  not  count  their  lives 
dear  to  them  if  they  can  only  build  this  world  into  the 
kingdom  of  God,  where  righteousness,  peace,  and  good 
will,  are  to  be  the  dominant  forces  in  human  society. 

God's  plan  for  the  world  is  his  kingdom.  It  is  his 
method  of  bringing  in  that  kingdom  and  administering 
it  through  human  agency  cooperating  with  him  that 
gives  the  moral  urgency  to  evangelism.  It  is  a  posi- 
tive, constructive,  courageous,  unselfish,  powerful 
agency  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  world  in  righteousness 
and  holiness. 

Consistent  Goodness 

But  a  world  cannot  be  made  righteous  or  holy  with- 
out making  indiyiduals  righteous  and  holy.  These  are 
personal  qualities.  They  must  be  concrete  to  be  effec- 
tive.    One  of  the  practical  difficulties  that  evangelism 


44  EVANGELISM 

faces  is  that  between  private  and  public  goodness  or 
badness,  between  personal  and  corporate  righteousness 
and  unrighteousness.  A  man  may  be  righteous  and 
just  and  kind  in  his  direct  personal  actions  with  in- 
dividuals, and  be  above  reproach  in  his  private  life, 
yet  as  a  stockholder  or  director  his  vote  may  mean  op- 
pression and  injustice  to  a  large  group  of  men  and 
women  whom  he  never  saw.  He  would  not  wrong  one 
of  them  if  he  were  dealing  privately  and  individually 
with  them,  yet  he  votes  to  cut  down  wages,  or  to  refuse 
to  improve  living  conditions  for  the  sake  of  larger 
dividends  on  his  investment.  His  indirect  action  may 
belie  his  personal  conduct.  So  too  a  man  may  be  a 
rascal  in  his  private  conduct,  rob  the  community  to 
get  his  money,  and  be  unbearable  in  his  home,  yet  in 
his  public  benefactions,  in  making  parks,  playgrounds, 
founding  hospitals,  helping  schools,  etc.,  he  may  be 
above  reproach.  Now  evangelism  is  to  make  both  of 
these  types  of  men  consistent  with  themselves,  so  that 
the  one  class  would  no  more  indirectly  do  a  wrong  to 
people  they  do  not  know  than  they  would  by  direct 
action  wrong  people  whom  they  do  know.  And  the 
other  class  make  their  private  integrity  agree  with  their 
public  munificence  and  benefactions. 

Holiness  and  righteousness,  as  personal  qualities, 
must  extend  to  all  deeds  and  to  all  relations.  A  good 
community  must  be  made  up  of  good  men  and  good 
women  who  are  consistent  and  constant  in  their  good- 
ness. There  may  a  sort  of  abstract  goodness  that 
belongs  to  society  as  a  whole,  and  that  may  be  a  very 
potent  factor  in  social  salvation,  but  that  will  not  exist 
in  the  absence  of  concrete  goodness.  There  are  a  social 


THE  PROGRAM  45 

consciousness  and  also  a  social  conscience,  just  as 
there  are  social  action  and  what  is  called  public  senti- 
ment. But  there  is  hardly  that  which  could  be  called  a 
social  personality.  Society  may  be  thought  of  as  a 
body,  but  hardly  as  a  person,  that  is,  individual.  The 
end  of  evangelism  is  the  perfection  of  God-filled  and 
God-ruled  personality,  and  any  program  that  does  not 
have  that  as  an  end  will  not  be  adequate  or  final.  A 
saved  social  order  will  conserve  individual  salvation, 
and  individual  salvation  makes  for  a  social  order. 

Saving  the  Whole  Man 

Evangelism  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  a 
man  must  be  saved  in  his  entirety  if  his  salvation  is  to 
be  of  permanent  worth  to  himself  or  to  the  world.  It 
is  the  man  who  stays  saved  who  helps  the  world;  the 
man  who  keeps  his  head  cool,  his  heart  warm,  his  body 
strong,  his  hands  clean,  his  sympathies  broad,  and  keeps 
hopeful  and  busy  who  helps  the  world  the  most.  It 
is  to  save  men  like  that  that  the  evangelistic  plea  is 
made.  That  cannot  be  done  in  a  minute.  Every  bet- 
tered individual  helps  to  make  a  better  social  order, 
and  in  every  bettered  social  order  it  is  easier  to  better 
individuals.  Men  hope  for  a  perfect  society  some  day,  \ 
but  not  here;  they  look  for  it  in  heaven.  That  white- 
robed  throng  that  cannot  be  numbered,  who  will  not 
hunger,  thirst,  toil,  suffer,  or  die  any  more,  is  in  heaven, 
but  we  must  realize  as  much  of  perfect  society  here  as 
possible.  There  will  be  hunger  and  suffering  and 
death,  but  hunger  can  be  constantly  lessened,  and  suf- 
fering mitigated,  and  death  itself  will  cease  to  be 
feared,  when  men  will  live  so  well  and  so  long  that 


46  EVANGELISM 

death  comes  at  last  as  a  glorious  promotion.  Instead 
of  the  death  day  being  a  day  of  gloom  it  will  be  a  day 
of  triumph.    That  is  the  Christian's  sense  of  death. 

There  is  needed  the  coordination  and  cooperation  of 
all  the  good  forces  in  the  world  to  help  realize  the  king- 
dom of  God.  Too  often  constructive  forces  for  good 
have  been  competitive,  and  worse  still,  antagonistic,  in  a 
community,  while  the  destructive  forces  of  evil  were 
cooperative.  Sin  made  its  conquest  while  the  forces 
for  good  were  quarreling  about  methods  of  defense. 

Evangelists  have  sometimes  tried  to  make  capital  for 
themselves  by  denouncing  the  church,  and  never  ap- 
pearing to  see  that  the  very  churches  which  they  de- 
nounce gave  them  their  living  and  the  only  standing 
they  have,  and  the  moral  influence  of  the  church  in 
the  world  carries  them  when  they  could  not  stand  an 
hour  on  their  own  merit. 

Much  has  been  ably  written  on  social  and  group 
salvation,  but  nothing  must  be  thought  of  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  bringing  of  the  individual  into  right 
relations  with  God.  The  permanence  of  all  religious 
work  at  last  rests  back  on  that.  We  may  differ  as  to 
method,  but  the  objective  must  be  the  same — to  make 
man  the  type  of  man  God  meant  him  to  be.  We  cannot 
deal  with  unrelated  units  nor  with  unindividuated 
masses.  The  mass  in  large  part  makes  the  individual 
what  he  is,  but  the  individual  helps  to  make  the  mass 
what  it  is. 


CHAPTER  III 

GENERAL  METHODS 

Our  methods  must  vary  according  to  our  communi- 
ties and  the  classes  of  people  and  ages  with  which  we 
deal.  Some  workers  seem  to  care  more  for  the  method 
than  they  do  for  the  result.  If  any  man  is  saved  by 
another  method  than  theirs,  they  doubt  the  genu- 
ineness of  his  salvation.  They  overlook  the  fact  that 
the  life,  the  character  of  the  individual,  is  the  final  test 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  change  that  has  taken  place. 
If  he  is,  as  Paul  says,  *'a  new  creation"  in  Christ,  what 
difference  does  it  make  how  he  became  so  ?  It  is  folly 
to  expect  the  same  religious  reaction  in  a  boy  of  twelve 
who  never  went  into  sin  as  in  a  man  of  forty  who  has 
been  in  the  gutter.  Yet  some  folks  seem  to  reason 
that  way.  To  cause  a  child  of  nine  to  weep  over  gross 
sins  as  a  condition  of  conversion  is  not  only  morbid 
but  wicked.  To  cause  a  little  child  to  be  afraid  of 
God  is  barbarous.  To  bring  up  children  to  fear  their 
father  is  a  perversion  of  family  life.  It  is  bad  in 
family  life  and  worse  in  religion. 

Skill  in  Approach 

The  method  of  approach  to  individuals  or  groups 
must  be  along  the  most  natural  lines,  along  lines  that 
will  not  prejudice  the  people  we  seek  against  us  in 

47 


48  EVANGELISM 

advance.  It  is  a  discouraging  thing  to  try  to  appeal  to 
a  closed  mind,  and  doubly  so  when  your  message  as 
well  as  your  person  is  discounted  before  you  begin. 
Men  and  women  must  be  won,  not  coaxed,  cajoled,  or 
frightened  into  the  Christian  life. 

■  To  be  a  successful  fisherman  one  must  not  only 
know  the  general  habits  of  fish  but  the  particular  habits 
of  the  kind  for  which  he  is  now  fishing;  the  habitat, 
the  bait,  the  time  of  year,  the  time  of  day,  whether 
or  not  they  go  in  schools,  etc.  All  this  enters  into  the 
common-sense  training  of  a  fisherman.  Now,  men 
ought  to  use  the  same  kind  of  common  sense  when 
they  become  fishers  of  men.  Jesus  chose  his  twelve 
apostles  that  he  might  teach  them  how  to  become  fishers 
of  men.  They  had  to  learn  how.  In  some  places  the 
evangelistic  methods  of  fifty  years  ago  will  not  work 
at  all.  Changed  conditions  of  living  must  be  met  by 
changed  methods  or  the  people  will  not  be  reached. 

The  same  methods  cannot  be  employed  in  college 
evangelism  as  would  be  in  a  rescue  mission.  The 
evangelistic  pastor  must  cultivate  powers  of  adaptabil- 
ity, so  as  to  adjust  the  methods  to  the  occasion.  In  the 
appeal  the  power  of  suggestion  must  be  used  with  great 
skill,  especially  when  dealing  with  young  people,  such 
as  one  would  have  in  Sunday  school,  where  whole 
classes  are  apt  to  act  as  groups,  with  little  individual 
initiative  or  judgment.  While  all  that  is  helpful  in 
group  consciousness  and  action  must  be  conserved  and 
utilized,  the  religious  decision  itself  must  be  intelligent, 
deliberate,  and  personal.  While  you  may  get  group 
action,  there  must  be  individual  decision,  for  religion 
is  the  right  relation  of  the  individual  to  God  with  all 


GENERAL  METHODS  49 

its  social  bearings  and  implications.  Religious  action 
as  class  action  in  Sunday  school  evangelism  that  does 
not  issue  in  permanent  decisions  and  also  in  permanent 
personal  religious  activity  is  apt  to  be  harmful.  The 
lapses  from  revivals  do  the  church  and  evangelism  in 
general  great  harm.  Any  method  that  leads  to  super- 
ficial work  does  as  much  harm  as  good,  perhaps  more. 
The  backslider  is  generally  far  more  dangerous  to  the 
cause  of  religion  than  the  original  sinner.  Every- 
body knows  the  attitude  of  the  original  sinner,  but  the 
backslider  discredits  religion  by  creating  the  impres- 
sion that  he  tried  it  and  found  there  was  nothing  to 
it.  He  is  apt  to  be  more  cynical  toward  religion  than 
the  original  sinner  in  order  to  justify  himself  in  giving 
it  up.  He  wants  to  create  the  impression  that  the 
fault  was  with  religion,  not  with  himself.  He  would 
rather  have  the  world  think  that  religion  was  a  sham 
than  that  he  was.  It  is  far  easier  for  him  to  declare 
that  the  church  or  religion  is  a  failure  than  to  adrnit 
or  confess  that  he  himself  is  undependable. 

Emphasizing  the  Spiritual 

The  church  and  the  evangelist  must  be  above  sus- 
picion if  the  community  is  to  be  successfully  reached 
not  merely  during  the  revival  but  the  whole  year 
through.^  No  method  that  has  a  trick  in  it  will  long 
succeed,  and  no  evangelist  who  is  known  to  be  tricky 
in  his  methods  will  be  trusted  by  the  sensible  man  on 
the  outside.  If  the  church  is  not  absolutely  above- 
board  in  all  its  methods,  it  will  not  have  the  confidence 
of  the  community.  The  church  must  show  itself  the 
friend  of  the  outside  man  eleven  months  in  the  year 


50  EVANGELISM 

when  the  revival  is  not  on,  as  well  as  the  one  month 
that  it  is  on.  It  is  for  want  of  just  that  one  thing  that 
the  one  month  is  often  a  failure.  Religion  cannot  be 
spasmodic.  It  must  be  constant  to  wear  down  opposi- 
tion by  siege  as  well  as  to  break  it  down  by  assault. 
A  church  that  condones  or  ignores  community  abuses 
for  eleven  months,  and  then  attacks  them  violently  for 
one  month,  cannot  make  the  world  believe  that  it  is 
seriously  in  earnest.  Consistency  is  always  an  im- 
portant factor  in  efficiency.  If  meetings  are  held  on  the 
street  where  are  all  nationalities  and  creeds — and  no 
creeds  meet — one  needs  to  show  the  practical  results  of 
religion  in  human  welfare  and  happiness  rather  than  to 
present  abstract  doctrines,  upon  which  men  differ  so 
widely,  and  about  which  the  vast  majority  of  men  know 
so  little,  however  valuable  such  presentation  may  be 
in  the  church.  The  trouble  with  the  mass  of  men  out 
of  the  church  is  that  they  think  in  terms  of  the  mate- 
rial. They  must  be  met  on  that  ground  to  get  a  hear- 
ing, but  they  must  not  be  left  on  that  ground.  An 
evangelism  which  is  only  social  and  industrial  will 
never  permanently  meet  the  needs  of  the  world.  Men 
must  be  brought  to  God.  The  lines  of  approach  may 
differ  widely,  but  they  must  focus  in  God.  If  men 
will  not  come  to  the  church,  the  church  must  go  to 
them.  That  statement  may  be  trite,  but  it  is  funda- 
mental. For  the  most  part  the  men  will  not  come  to 
the  church.  The  church  too  often  when  that  stage  is 
reached,  sells  out  and  moves  away  where  its  old  con- 
stituents have  gone.  That  leaves  the  man  on  the  street 
unchurched;  and,  worse  than  that,  it  leaves  him  with 
the  feeling  that  the  church  cares  nothing  about  him 


GENERAL  METHODS  51 

and  has  gone  off  and  left  him.  Of  course  he  does  not 
think  the  thing  through.  If  he  did,  he  would  see  that 
if  he  only  had  been  fair  to  the  church  and  met  it  half- 
way, it  would  not  have  had  to  move  out.  He  ought 
not  to  expect  the  church  to  come  all  the  way  all  the 
time,  and  when  he  has  proved  himself  hopeless  to  the 
church  to  blame  it  for  not  keeping  forever  at  him  when 
he  does  not  intend  to  be  fair  is  unreasonable. 

Of  course  this  means  that  the  church  is  on  the  job 
and  is  interested  in  all  the  life  problems  of  the  com- 
munity. If  a  churchman  works  his  men  seven  days  in 
the  week,  or  six  days  so  hard  that  he  exhausts  them, 
he  must  not  blame  them  for  not  liking  the  church  or 
attending  it.  They  ought  not  to  judge  the  whole  church 
by  him,  nor  condemn  the  church  in  all  places  because 
in  a  given  place  a  man  misrepresents  the  real  spirit 
of  the  church  of  which  he  is  a  member,  and  much 
more  the  church  at  large;  but  they  do.  That  is  the 
perversity  of  human  nature,  and  all  folks  have  some  of 
it — indeed,  too  much  of  it  to  permit  their  judgment 
to  be  fair,  or  even  trustworthy,  in  these  general  con- 
demnations. If  the  man  on  the  outside  finds  one  hypo- 
crite in  the  church,  he  says,  "Well,  they  are  all  alike," 
and  for  that  statement  he  will  be  applauded.  If  the 
church  should  say  because  there  is  a  murder  among  the 
men  on  the  outside,  "Well,  they  are  all  alike,"  he 
would  strongly  resent  it,  but  it  would  be  just  as  fair. 

A  church  interested  in  the  redemption  of  men  all 
the  time  will  not  find  it  difficult  to  convince  them  that 
it  is  interested  any  time.  Pious  words  unaccompanied 
by  pious  deeds  will  not  long  be  effective.  Pious  deeds 
are  always  mighty  in  their  effective  eloquence.     Some 


52  EVANGELISM 

one  has  said,  in  substance,  that  a  loaf  of  bread  is  under- 
stood in  all  languages.  Jesus  made  large  use  of  the 
eloquence  of  deeds,  but  his  feeding  and  healing  were 
always  means,  not  ends.  The  end  was  to  get  men 
rightly  related  to  God.  He  is  our  Master  Evangelist. 
It  will  not  be  hard  to  follow  his  method  if  we  once 
catch  his  spirit. 

Spiritual  Needs 

The  trouble  with  most  men  is  that  they  are  blind  to 
their  spiritual  need,  and  they  translate  their  hunger 
for  God  in  terms  of  the  material,  and  blame  the  church 
if  it  does  not  do  so  too.  The  church  must  be  patient 
with  these  blind  and  hungry  folks,  and  not  get  discour- 
aged if  it  cannot  reveal  God  to  them  at  once.  The 
really  evangelistic  church  represents  God  in  action 
among  men,  and  the  resulting  revival  is  man's  response 
to  that  acting  God.  God  seems  too  far  off  to  the  average 
man  in  the  church,  and  much  more  so  to  the  man  out- 
side of  the  church.  To  the  men  out  of  the  church 
God  does  not  know,  in  which  case  they  don't  trust 
him ;  or  he  cannot  help,  in  which  case  they  do  not  need 
him;  or  he  does  not  care,  then  they  do  not  want  him. 
Evangelism  is  to  make  men  feel  that  God  is  right  here 
in  his  world,  knowing,  helping,  caring.  The  outside 
man's  environment  is  not  favorable  to  spiritual  sensi- 
tiveness, but  many  of  the  noblest  souls  come  to  spirit- 
ual vision  and  power  in  spite  of  environment.  Jacob 
Riis  is  a  good  example,  and  though  he  said  that  envi- 
ronment counted  ninety-nine  per  cent  in  the  slums,  he 
showed  that,  though  he  was  in  the  slums,  environment 
was  not  ninety-nine  per  cent  with  him ;  nor  has  it  been 


GENERAL  METHODS  53 

so  with  many  another.  But  it  is  a  powerful  factor  and 
has  to  be  reckoned  with  in  evangeUsm.  To  be  effective 
the  whole  church  must  be  active,  the  laity  as  well  as 
the  clergy.  The  Christian  is  saved  to  serve.  The  whole 
Christian  community  is  called  to  evangelism.  That 
makes  it  democratic  and  effective. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  MESSAGE   (GENERAL) 

Dealing  Frankly  with  Sin 

The  type  of  sermon  will  depend  on  the  class  of 
people  to  whom  the  message  is  delivered.  Its  point 
must  be  a  call  to  God,  to  a  life  of  righteousness,  to 
a  break  with  sin.  Any  evangelistic  message  that  is 
afraid  to  be  frank  and  fearless  will  fail.  Men  high 
and  low  must  give  up  sin.  He  that  steals  must  steal 
no  more.  He  that  oppresses  must  oppress  no  more. 
He  that  shirks  must  shirk  no  more.  It  must  be  a 
rightabout  face,  or  else  he  will  be  marking  time. 
Glossing  over  sin  does  not  even  please  the  sinner.  He 
may  say  it  does,  but  in  his  heart  he  despises  such  a 
message.  He  knows  sin  in  its  horrible  nakedness,  and 
he  would  condemn  the  preacher  who  tries  to  make  it 
harmless  or  lovely.  Sin  is  horrible,  and  the  sinner 
knows  it  even  when  he  likes  it.  He  would  not  have  his 
mother  or  sister  or  wife  do  what  he  does  for  the 
world.  He  despises  it,  yet  likes  it  and  commits  it, 
but  the  preacher  cannot  fool  him  by  glossing  it  over. 
He  does  not  ring  true  when  he  does  so.  Nothing 
shakes  the  confidence  in  his  preacher  with  the  thinking 
man  more  than  to  hear  him  violently  attack  the  sins 
of  the  people  who  are  not  present  and  ignore  the  sins 
of  those  who  are;  or  to  be  severe  with  the  little  sin- 
ners back  under  the  gallery,  and  gentle  with  the  big 

54 


THE  MESSAGE  (GENERAL)  55 

sinners  up  in  the  middle  aisle,  as  he  puts  it.  Courage 
must  be  consistent. 

The  preacher  who  deals  with  sin  successfully  must 
deal  with  it  impartially,  and  that  means  that  he  must 
not  be  afraid  of  a  purse,  an  office,  or  an  organization. 
If  he  attacks  capital  when  it  is  wrong,  he  must  attack 
labor  when  it  is  wrong.  The  man  who  renders  a 
pittance  work  for  a  good  day's  wage  is  as  mean  and 
dishonest  as  the  man  who  gives  a  pittance  wage  for  a 
good  day's  work.  They  are  equally  and  inexcusably 
dishonest  and  unbrotherly.  Neither  practices  either 
the  Christian  ideal  or  the  Christian  ethics. 

The  true  evangelist  strikes  at  sin  and  wrong  with  a 
courage  and  consistency  which  leaves  no  doubt  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  hear  that  a  prophet  has  spoken. 
He  will  strike  at  individual  and  collective  sins  with 
equal  fearlessness,  yet  he  must  not  be  vindictive.  His 
indignation  may  blaze  out  in  fury  against  all  forms  of 
wrong,  whether  that  wrong  strikes  up  or  down.  But 
he  must  also  point  the  refuge  in  the  love  of  a  saving 
God,  He  is  God's  messenger  with  a  call  to  life  on  his 
lips.  That  call  will  turn  to  judgment  only  when  it  is 
refused. 

Preachers  must  have  the  rugged  courage  and  direct- 
ness of  John  the  Baptist,  but  also  the  tenderness  and 
sympathy  of  Jesus.  It  is  only  when  men  are  warmed 
by  the  sympathy  and  softened  by  the  tenderness  of 
Jesus  that  they  can  speak  effectively  on  the  awful 
matter  of  judgment.  No  man  with  a  cold  heart  or 
bitter  feeling  can  speak  on  the  terrible  judgment  of 
unrepented  sin  without  being  brutal,  and  brutality  al- 
ways defeats  itself,  whether  it  is  in  gospel  evangelism 


56  EVANGELISM 

or  prison  administration  or  in  the  prosecution  of  war. 
And  when  the  pulpit  made  God  a  monster  of  brutaUty 
some  people  were  frightened  into  the  Kingdom,  but 
that  type  of  preaching  had  to  die,  and  rightly  so. 
Love's  punishment  is  only  a  last  resort  after  all  else 
fails.  It  is  only  the  man  who  will  not  be  moved  and 
won  by  the  love  of  God  that  must  be  faced  with  the 
judgment  of  God.  But  the  gospel  is  so  manifold  that 
it  appeals  to  all  cases.  Men  must  face  their  sins  and 
forsake  them  and  yield  themselves  in  absolute  obedi- 
ence to  the  will  and  rule  of  God,  or  there  will  be  no 
permanent  religious  life  that  will  issue  in  anything 
worth  while.  As  before  mentioned,  evangelism  must 
be  constructive.  Men  must  not  only  see  the  life  of 
sin  they  are  to  be  saved  from  but  the  worthwhileness 
of  the  Hfe  they  are  to  be  saved  to.  Evangelism  often 
has  failed  by  only  showing  what  men  are  to  be  saved 
from.  That  will  give  them  gratitude,  but  they  must 
be  shown  what  they  are  saved  to.  That  will  give  them 
incentive.  The  one  gives  sentiment,  the  other,  motive. 
Both  are  needed.  Many  do  not  see  the  need  of  becom- 
ing Christians  if  it  only  means  a  change  of  belief  at 
a  few  points,  and  a  little  personal  comfort ;  but  to  show 
them  that  it  is  a  challenge  to  the  brightest  life  and  to 
most  unselfish  servi(^e  for  the  world's  uplift,  is 
another  thing.  It  is  a  life  worth  while  even  if  there 
were  no  hereafter.  The  greatness  and  rightness  and 
usefulness  of  the  Christian  life  is  the  major  evan- 
gelistic appeal.  To  show  young  people  how  they  can 
invest  their  powers  in  some  noble  and  worthy  life 
service  will  go  much  farther  toward  winning  them 
than  any  terrors  of  judgment  which  will  assail  them 


THE  MESSAGE  (GENERAL)  57 

if  they  do  not  repent.  For  death  and  judgment  seem 
unreal  and  distant  to  most  young  people,  especially 
those  we  reach  in  colleges  and  churches;  and,  indeed, 
not  much  headway  is  made  with  the  other  less  cultured 
class  of  young  people,  who  have  to  dodge  a  police- 
man, if  God  is  made  an  infinite  policeman  who  can- 
not be  avoided.  It  gives  them  an  unnatural  and  mor- 
bid conception  of  God.  Their  religion  will  be  apt  to 
express  itself  in  either  cringing  or  defiant  forms,  and 
that  does  not  help  them  to  win  others,  except  perhaps 
a  few  of  their  own  class. 

God  demands  justice,  righteousness,  goodness  and 
service  among  men.  That  cannot  be  stressed  too 
strongly.  Men  cannot  wait  until  after  death  to  enjoy 
or  employ  their  goodness.  That  must  be  done  here 
and  now,  and  the  hereafter  will  take  care  of  itself. 
Life  must  be  right  to-day.  But  God  will  put  all  the 
love  and  grace  at  man's  disposal  that  he  needs,  if  he 
will  submit  himself  to  the  rule  of  God.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets  insisted  that  men  should  do  righteously 
now.  See  Isaiah  i,  Amos  5,  Micah  6.  The  nation,  or 
as  we  would  say  to-day,  society,  must  be  clean,  rever- 
ent, merciful,  just  and  God-loving  and  man-loving 
now;  not  in  the  far  off  ''Day  of  the  Lord"  which 
was  their  Golden  Age.  They  were  often  discouraged 
at  the  meagerness  and  slowness  of  the  response  they 
received.  So  they  saw  that  judgment  would  have  to 
precede  that  Golden  Age,  for  the  people  would  neither 
love  God  nor  be  just  to  one  another.  But  it  was, 
"Choose  you  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve."  There 
must  be  righteousness  in  the  earth.  Men  of  later  time 
forgot  that  and  urged  men  to  be  saved  that  they  might 


58  EVANGELISM 

get  to  heaven  at  last.  The  old  Hebrews  expected 
heaven  down  here  in  the  "day  of  the  Lord."  Life  then 
would  be  lived  in  its  entirety  in  the  will  of  God.  "Thy 
kingdom  come"  does  not  mean  that  people  should  die 
and  go  to  heaven,  but  to  get  the  will  of  God  done 
down  here  as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  That  Lord's  Prayer 
is  a  great  evangelistic  message,  or  several  messages. 
It  means  the  rule  of  God  in  the  earth.  That  would 
bring  about  a  real  brotherhood  of  man. 

Impartial  Ministry 

In  the  regular  ministry,  or  in  evangelism  in  the 
more  restricted  sense,  the  minister  must  not  be  partisan, 
but  the  champion  of  right  and  justice  and  goodness. 
He  must  represent  God.  If  he  is  arrayed  against  one 
side,  it  is  because  it  is  wrong;  if  he  is  for  the  other 
side,  it  is  because  it  is  right.  People  will  soon  find 
that  out,  and  if  they  want  to  be  on  his  side,  or  have 
him  on  theirs,  they  must  "true  up"  with  the  right. 
That  is  the  best  compliment  that  can  ever  be  paid  to  a 
minister.  If  men  want  him  to  champion  their  cause, 
whether  that  be  capital  or  labor,  they  must  be  on  the 
right  side  of  the  issue.  The  rights  of  labor  are  as 
sacred  as  the  rights  of  capital,  but  no  more  so.  Rights 
are  rights,  no  matter  which  side  they  are  on.  In  this 
case  they  are  on  both  sides,  and  much  of  the  difficulty 
which  has  arisen  is  because  neither  side  recognized 
the  rights  of  the  other.  The  preacher  must  be  the 
friend  of  both  if  he  would  win  both,  and  he  must  be 
equally  frank  and  fair  with  both.  If  men  say  it  is 
impossible,  then  right  living  is  impossible.    It  is  simply 


THE  MESSAGE  (GENERAL)  59 

a  rule  of  right  living.  It  is  practiced  fairly  well  in 
every  well-ordered  and  happy  home.  It  is  the  rule 
of  brotherhood.  The  goal  of  evangelism  is  to  get 
that  done,  but  it  will  be  slow  work  if  the  only  way  to 
get  it  done  will  be  by  adding  one  individual  to  another. 
The  Golden  Rule  is  like  the  disarmament  of  nations 
— easy  and  simple  if  all  nations  would  agree  to  it.  But 
the  nation  that  does  it  alone  puts  itself  at  the  mercy 
of  all  unscrupulous  nations  that  do  not  do  it.  So 
one  man  who  practices  the  Golden  Rule  alone  in  a 
community  where  no  one  else  does,  is  the  victim  of  all 
designing  and  dishonest  people. 

So  social  evangelism  comes  in  again  to  quicken  the 
social  conscience,  so  that  at  least  a  large  part  of  the 
community,  by  mutual  agreement,  could  make  the 
Golden  Rule  effective  and  profitable  in  practice.  It 
must  be  prompted  by  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  in 
a  sincere  desire  to  practice  goodness. 

Repentance  may  seem  like  an  old-fashioned  doctrine, 
but  it  is  fundamental  in  evangelism;  it  must  be 
preached.  If  men  are  asked  to  do  less  than  re- 
pent, their  salvation  may  be  no  more  than  a  good  reso- 
lution. This,  of  course,  is  not  expected  of  chil- 
dren who  never  have  been  consciously  hostile  to  God, 
but  to  men  who  have  either  ignored  or  defied  God 
repentance  is  fundamental.  But  repentance  is  more 
than  a  revulsion  of  feeling.  It  is  a  change  of  mind  and 
will.  It  is  complete  change  of  personal  attitude  from 
indifference  or  disobedience  to  God  to  a  glad  and 
whole-hearted  obedience  to  God.  There  must  be  that 
new  attitude  before  there  can  be  salvation.  It  is  a 
change  of  life's  direction,  and  that  change  of  direction 


6o  EVANGELISM 

will  change  both  the  motive  and  the  content  of  life. 
It  will  move  toward  God.  Its  center  will  be  a  love 
center,  not  a  self  center.  When  man  changes  from  a 
wrong  attitude  toward  God  to  a  right  attitude,  God 
meets  that  repentant  man  and  changes  his  nature  by 
grace,  forgiving  him  and  accepting  him  into  sonship, 
and  liberating  in  him  a  spiritual  force  that  will  enable 
him  to  live  the  life  on  a  new  center,  move  in  the  new 
direction,  and  have  the  new  content.  He  is  a  new 
creation  in  Christ. 

The  evangelistic  message  must  possess  not  less  than 
this,  but  it  must  also  add  that  this  new  life  must  begin 
at  once  to  express  itself  in  service.  Only  so  can  it 
keep  moving  Godward.  God  and  man  now  cooperate, 
not  only  in  the  building  of  character  but  in  the  ren- 
dering of  service. 

Faith  and  Action 

Repentance  and  faith  are  two  requisites  to  salvation. 
But  faith  is  more  than  intellectual  belief  or  assent. 
Faith  in  the  Christian  sense — indeed,  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment sense — is  very  vital  and  very  personal.  It  in- 
volves three  things — namely,  confidence  in,  love  for, 
and  obedience  to  a  Person;  that  is,  the  Person  Jesus 
Christ.  This  complete  change  in  a  man's  life  may  ex- 
press itself  in  various  ways,  but  where  there  is  a  genu- 
ine conversion  the  reality  of  it  must  be  there.  The 
evangelistic  message  must  be  very  specific  in  its  in- 
struction as  well  as  urgent  in  its  appeal.  Men  must 
be  made  to  see  what  it  is  to  become  a  Christian,  and 
what  the  Christian  life  involves  after  one  becomes  a 
Christian.    If  all  things  are  to  go  on  as  they  did  before 


THE  MESSAGE  (GENERAL)  6i 

except  the  mere  accident  of  church  membership, 
nothing  worth  while  has  been  done.  It  is  not  difficuh 
to  accept  creeds  intellectually,  but  to  trust,  love,  and 
obey  a  Person  is  something  far  different  and  more 
vital.  ''Do  you  believe  the  doctrines  of  the  church?" 
is  not  as  important  a  question  as  ''Will  you  do  the  will 
of  God?"  "Will  you  keep  the  rules  of  the  church?" 
is  not  as  important  as  "Do  you  love  and  will  you  fol- 
low Christ?"  "Will  you  give  your  money  to  support 
the  gospel?"  is  not  so  important  as  "Will  you  give 
yourself  to  God,  to  help  make  this  a  better  world  and 
get  God's  will  done  in  it?"  These  are  important  mat- 
ters to  make  clear  when  presenting  the  gospel  for 
immediate  decision.  It  is  not  to  put  the  minimum  of 
what  must  be  done  to  escape  judgment,  but  what  is 
the  maximum  that  can  be  done  to  please  God  and  help 
men. 

Evangelism  a  Maximum  Business 

Evangelism  is  not  in  the  minimum  business,  but  in 
the  maximum  business  of  helping  to  establish  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  the  earth.  Present  the  biggest  motive 
possible  for  men  to  become  Christians.  It  is  a  chal- 
lenge to  character  and  service,  not  an  escape  from 
penalty.  Here  at  home  the  pagan  must  be  shown  a 
wl^ole  new  life  and  a  whole  new  world,  just  as  well  as 
in  non-Christian  countries.  The  Christian  life  must 
be  shown  to  be  the  biggest,  greatest,  and  best  life  in 
the  world.  It  needs  no  defense.  It  needs  definition 
and  proclamation.  It  will  stand  on  its  own  merits. 
The  gospel  message  should  contain  no  apology  for  its 
proclamation.     It  offers  the  world  the  greatest  thing 


62  EVANGELISM 

there  is,  and  is  not  ashamed  of  it.  Paul  puts  it  finely 
in  Romans  i.  i6. 

But  this  salvation,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  to 
regulate  all  life  in  all  its  bearings  and  relations.  Evan- 
gelism strives  for  saved  men,  but  also  for  a  saved 
world,  "wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 

In  the  struggle  for  existence,  whether  in  nature  or  in 
industry,  the  effort  of  the  weak  is  to  get  into  the 
place  of  the  strong,  and  the  effort  of  the  strong  is 
to  keep  them  out.  If  the  weak  had  their  way,  we  would 
have  the  same  conditions  only  with  a  new  set  of  strong 
ones.  When  the  weak  ones  got  into  the  place  of  the 
strong  ones  they  would  act  just  as  the  strong  ones  did 
before  them.  When  the  laborer  who  cries  down  the 
capitalists  gets  to  be  a  capitalist  he  is  just  like  the  rest 
of  them.  Many  of  the  "kings  of  finance"  were  once 
the  slaves  of  a  meager  wage.  So  it  has  ever  been. 
The  cure  of  human  ills  is  not  in  the  material,  but  in 
the  spiritual.  It  is  in  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the 
new  life.  A  man  must  be  master  of  his  goods  or  else 
he  is  their  slave. 

Life  in  union  with  God  is  the  end  of  religion. 

The  man  with  little  waits  for  the  man  with  much 
to  come  down,  but  he  himself  wants  to  go  up.  But 
where  shall  the  man  who  is  to  come  down  stop?  And 
where  is  the  man  who  is  going  up  to  stop  ?  The  stop- 
ping place  is  as  difficult  for  the  one  as  it  is  for  the 
other.  If  the  lower  man  begins  to  rise,  he 
will  not  stop  as  long  as  he  can  rise  higher. 
At  last  he  comes  to  the  place  of  the  man  he  con- 
demns for  being  up,  but  he  does  not  want  to  be  con- 
demned, but  commended  for  his  successful  rise.     The 


THE  MESSAGE  (GENERAL)  63 

man  who  has  come  down  now  condemns  him,  and  so 
the  circle  goes  on.  As  long  as  the  basis  of  the  con- 
tention is  the  material  the  quarrel  will  go  on,  for  as 
long  as  men  differ  in  capacity  there  will  be  differences 
in  social  and  financial  levels,  and  the  grade  that  is 
longed  for  will  not  come  by  a  leveling  down  process, 
but  by  a  grading-up  process,  and  that  too  in  charac- 
ter rather  than  in  property.  Men  will  come  together 
on  the  level  of  life's  higher  values,  namely,  the  spirit- 
ual. The  true  democracy  is  in  the  spiritual. 
There  can  be  differences  of  possession  without 
pride,  envy,  or  hatred.  When  men  come  to  oneness 
of  spirit  there  will  be  real  brotherhood.  There  can  be 
no  brotherhood  by  forces  which  produce  hatred  and 
jealousies.  Evangelism  is  to  make  men  brothers  by 
bringing  them  to  oneness  of  spirit  in  Jesus  Christ.  In 
that  brotherhood  there  will  be  justice,  righteousness, 
goodness,  and  love. 

Service  the  Cure  for  Selfishness 

The  best  cure  for  selfishness  is  service.  When  men 
get  interested  in  making  a  better  world  by  getting  the 
will  of  God  done,  they  will  have  neither  the  time  nor 
disposition  to  hate,  envy,  and  oppress  one  another.  But 
before  that  time  comes  there  must  be  much  justice 
practiced  on  both  sides  of  the  industrial  restlessness  of 
to-day.  Religion  will  not  only  give  a  motive  but  a 
new  power  to  do  this.  One  of  the  great  dangers  of 
to-day  is  the  mania  for  immediacy.  Things  must  be 
done  right  off.  The  work  of  years  must  be  done  while 
one  waits.  But  some  things  cannot  be  done  right  off. 
An  artist  can  paint  a  tree  in  a  few  days,  but  it  takes 


64  EVANGELISM 

God  several  years  to  make  a  tree.  Traditions  and 
prejudices  and  age-long  differences  of  temper  and 
viewpoint  cannot  be  changed  at  once;  adjustments  can- 
not be  made  overnight.  There  must  be  patient  founda- 
tion work  done,  but  the  outcome  of  the  slower  and 
more  thorough  process  will  be  far  more  permanent 
and  satisfactory.  It  is  by  evolution  rather  than  by 
revolution  that  the  best  work  will  be  done,  but  there 
often  have  to  be  revolutions,  to  get  evolutionary  forces 
started,  just  as  cataclysms  in  nature  have  hastened 
the  work  of  evolution  in  many  directions.  A  sudden 
upheaval  or  subsidence  may  change  climate  and  other 
conditions,  such  as  moisture,  dryness,  soil,  etc.,  and 
so  hasten  the  evolutionary  process  in  certain  directions 
by  thousands  of  years. 

So  in  human  society  revival  or  industrial  revolu- 
tion may  greatly  hasten  progress  along  all  good  lines. 
The  South  is  to-day,  perhaps,  industrially  a  hundred 
years  ahead  of  where  it  would  have  been  but  for  the 
Civil  War.  The  South  fell,  but  it  fell  upward,  and  in 
spite  of  the  devastation  of  four  years  of  awful  war  the 
South  put  forth  an  energy  in  reconstruction  which  was 
only  equaled  by  its  courage  in  fighting.  Sometimes 
the  whole  system  of  living  as  far  as  it  is  wrong,  whether 
of  the  individual  or  social  order,  has  to  be  broken  up 
by  what  looks  like  a  method  of  violence  and  destruc- 
tion, so  that  a  new  order  founded  upon  better  princi- 
ples may  be  constructed.  The  industrial  waste  and 
perversion  of  the  liquor  traffic  had  to  be  destroyed  by 
law  in  order  that  the  men,  money,  and  plants  em- 
ployed in  that  destructive  traffic  might  be  employed  in 
a  constructive  and  beneficent  business.     This  twofold 


THE  MESSAGE  (GENERAL)  65 

force  must  go  on  in  evangelism,  destroying  or  trans- 
forming all  those  things  which  are  subversive  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  that  the  Kingdom,  with  all  its  benef- 
icent principles  for  individual  and  social  weal,  may  go 
on  unto  perfection.  Evangelism  must  never  be  put 
under  the  suspicion  that  it  is  actuated  by  selfish  inter- 
ests. If  a  church  is  suspected  of  being  more  interested 
in  its  own  statistics  than  it  is  in  human  welfare,  its 
usefulness  is  at  an  end.  If  a  denomination  is  sus- 
pected of  being  more  anxious  to  spread  its  own  doc- 
trines than  it  is  to  introduce  men  and  women  to  Jesus 
Christ,  its  influence  as  a  world  power  is  gone.  The 
great  business  of  evangelism  is  to  make  real  Chris- 
tians. When  that  is  thoroughly  and  unselfishly  done, 
all  other  interests  will  be  best  served. 

But  that  will  not  be  done  by  antagonizing  either 
capital  or  labor,  but  by  exalting  Christ,  and  it  is  his 
rule  in  the  lives  of  men  that  will  condemn  wrong  and 
defend  right  among  all  classes  of  men,  and  sanctify 
all  the  relations  of  men.  That  is  the  best  rule  to  cor- 
rect the  false  standard  of  the  "me  first"  men  in  all 
classes.  The  Christian  spirit  is  the  sacrificial  spirit, 
which  puts  itself  last,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  with 
God's  Fatherhood  and  man's  brotherhood  first.  That 
sacrificial  principle  must  lie  at  the  very  heart  of  the 
evangelistic  message.  "If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and 
follow  me."  That  is  the  hardest  thing  to  do.  It  is 
hard  for  the  upper  man  and  it  is  hard  for  the  under 
man.  To  let  go  of  self  for  the  common  weal  is  life's 
hardest  task. 

Jesus  is  the  example  of  it.    "The  Son  of  man  came 


66  EVANGELISM 

not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister/'  That  is 
the  lesson  that  all  levels  of  human  life  must  learn. 
It  takes  heroic  living  to  do  it,  but  that  is  the  price  that 
must  be  paid  by  those  who  follow  Jesus,  and  that  must 
be  made  clear  in  the  message.  It  may  be  that  is  why 
so  few  travel  the  narrow  way  that  leadeth  unto  life. 
Men  broaden  their  usefulness  as  they  narrow  their 
self-interests.  It  may  take  a  long  time  to  rouse  the 
social  conscience,  longer  than  it  does  to  rouse  the  in- 
dividual conscience.  But  there  is  a  social  conscience, 
and  there  will  be  no  permanent  social  betterment  till 
that  conscience  is  roused,  sensitized,  and  put  into  ac- 
tion. There  is  social  sin  as  well  as  individual  sin,  and 
that  sin  must  be  recognized  and  given  up  before  any 
salvation  that  is  more  than  a  name  will  come  to  the 
world.  The  saved  man  must  help  to  make  a  saved 
society,  and  saved  society  must  be  interested  in  the 
last  lost  man,  and  make  it  difficult  for  saved  children  to 
become  lost  men  and  women. 

That  will  put  proper  emphasis  upon  guarding  the 
home,  the  school,  industry,  and  all  other  institutions 
that  make  for  the  weal  of  child  life,  and  therefore  for 
all  human  life  and  interests.  The  evangelistic  mes- 
sage is  a  broad,  deep,  practical  message,  and  the  pro- 
gram is  commensurate  with  the  message.  The  message 
is  to  every  creature,  and  the  program  is  a  new  world 
which  is  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC) 

I 

Love  Message  to  Children 

The  evangelistic  message  must  be  adapted  to  the 
group  to  whom  it  is  given,  because  it  is  a  call  to  God, 
but  a  message  of  salvation  does  not  mean  that  the 
same  form  or  emphasis  will  be  equally  appropriate  to 
all  groups. 

The  message  to  children  from  ten  to  fifteen  or  six- 
teen ought  to  be  a  love  message.  They  are  still  con- 
stantly sharing  in  the  love  of  parents.  God's  Father- 
hood, with  the  love  charms  that  are  involved  in  it,  is 
a  most  natural  approach.  So  far  these  have  earned  no 
rights,  they  have  not  produced  anything,  they  are  fos- 
tered and  protected  by  love.  Love  has  fed,  clothed, 
schooled  them,  and  they  can  see  love's  obligation,  how 
binding  it  is.  The  transition  can  easily  be  made  from 
human  love  to  God's  Father  love. 

The  message  always  ought  to  be  given  along  the  h*ne 
that  is  the  easiest  and  most  natural  approach  to  the 
group  addressed.  The  talk  to  children  or  youth  who 
have  had  natural  and  intelligent  training,  about  the 
judgment  and  the  hereafter — either  the  terrors  of  hell 
or  the  joys  of  heaven — is  a  misuse  of  words  and  a  perv- 
version  of  method.  Those  things  are  so  remote  to 
children  and  youth  as  to  be  unreal.     They  do  not  and 

67 


6S  EVANGELISM 

ought  not  to  think  that  they  are  going  to  die  right 
away.  Death  to  their  own  consciousness  is  off  in  old 
age.  They  know,  of  course,  that  other  young  people 
die,  but  they  do  not  expect  to  die  till  they  are  old ;  and 
with  them,  at  any  rate,  the  emphasis  ought  to  be  on 
life  and  opportunity  and  duty,  not  on  death  and  re- 
wards or  penalties.  Children  often  are  made  morbid 
by  thrusting  on  them  considerations  far  in  advance  of 
their  experience,  and  it  is  a  grave  mistake  to  teach 
them  that  God  would  punish  them  with  an  eternal 
judgment  when  human  law  would  not  even  send  them 
temporarily  to  jail.  If  they  think  that  God  is  not  as 
good  as  an  ordinary  judge,  they  may  develop  a  religion 
of  obedience  founded  on  fear,  but  not  on  love.  They 
will  have  a  slave  spirit  and  give  a  forced  service.  The 
great  danger  is  that  they  will  develop  a  hatred  for  re- 
ligion. Even  ignorant  and  limited  parents  do  not  want 
that  form  of  religion.  How  much  less  does  God !  To 
that  age,  above  all  other,  the  message  is  to  be  the  love 
of  God.  They  should  trust  God  with  the  unsuspect- 
ing confidence  of  children,  and  love  him  with  the  spon- 
taneous love  of  a  child's  heart. 

Let  "temperance,  righteousness,  and  judgment  to 
come"  be  reserved  for  the  hardened  and  deliberate 
transgressors,  where  it  will  be  understood  and  de- 
served, but  to  spoil  and  terrorize  child  life  with  the 
matters  of  judgment  is  an  inexcusable  perversion  of 
the  evangelistic  spirit  and  method.  No  one  who  is  in 
his  right  mind  would  teach  that  a  human  father  was 
one  who  would  secure  filial  obedience  by  the  threat  of 
disinheritance,  banishment,  or  death,  to  his  children. 
Yet  some  think  that  it  is  entirely  proper  to  so  repre- 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  69 

sent  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  divine  rules  of 
family  life.  God  is  to  be  made  inexpressively  lovely, 
and  tender  and  gentle  and  good ;  better  than  all  the  lov- 
ing mothers  and  good  fathers  in  the  world,  to  those 
under  sixteen,  who  are  still  in  the  home,  Sunday 
school,  and  church.  Even  to  the  boys  and  girls  of 
the  slums  it  is  far  better  to  tell  them  of  a  love  they 
never  knew  in  their  homes  than  to  make  God  an  infinite 
Policeman  whom  they  fear  and  despise. 

The  evangelistic  message  must  be  carefully  worded 
and  guarded  when  it  is  addressed  to  children.  Deci- 
sion Day  talks  in  the  Junior  and  Intermediate  Depart- 
ments of  the  Sunday  school  are  more  exposed  to  the 
peril  of  being  misunderstood  and  to  miscarry  than  any 
other  form  of  evangelistic  address,  and  the  conse- 
quences are  the  most  serious.  To  bias  young  minds 
against  the  goodness  and  fairness  of  God  when  the 
emotions  and  imagination  are  far  in  excess  of  the  rea- 
son and  judgment,  is  one  of  the  most  serious  blunders 
that  teachers,  preachers,  parents,  or  evangelists  ever 
make  in  the  matters  of  religion.  Utter  indifference  to 
religion,  or  religious  hatred,  or  even  atheism,  may  and 
often  does  result  from  such  teaching. 

To  those  of  tender  years,  the  message  must  be  one 
of  the  love  and  the  goodness  of  God.  Any  other  is 
given  at  a  risk  so  great  that  one  shudders  to  think 
of  the  consequences  that  may  follow.  Much  of  the 
mischief  of  the  boys  and  girls  of  that  age  in  Sunday 
school  is  but  the  hissing  through  the  safety  valve  of 
action  of  the  steam  of  unused  energy,  and  is  not  inten- 
tional nor  premeditated  mischief.  It  is  easy  to  mis- 
judge these  young  people,  and  to  accuse  them  of  de- 


70  EVANGELISM 

liberate  and  planned  maliciousness  when  they  know  all 
the  time  that  it  is  not  true.  They  lose  confidence  in 
the  accuser's  judgment,  fairness,  and  goodness, 
whether  he  be  teacher,  superintendent,  or  pastor. 
These  young  people  are  more  sensitive  to  injustice  at 
this  age  than  at  any  other  time  because  now  they  feel 
that  they  have  no  redress.  Bad  as  it  is  for  teacher, 
superintendent,  or  pastor  to  fall  in  their  eyes,  and  drop 
out  of  the  love  and  confidence  of  these  boys  and  girls, 
it  is  far  worse  to  so  represent  God  that  he  falls.  And 
when  the  speaker  feels  peeved  because  of  inattention, 
which  may  be  due  to  uncomfortable  seats,  poor  light, 
defective  hearing,  bad  air,  or  weariness,  or  the  general 
confusion  of  a  poorly  disciplined  Sunday  school,  it  is 
easy  then  to  remind  them  of  the  judgments  of  God  on 
offenses  of  which  they  are  unconscious,  so  the  talk 
seems  nonsense.  The  evangelist  or  pastor  who  wins 
these  boys  and  girls  is  wise,  and  they  are  more  easily 
won  or  wounded  then  than  at  any  other  time.  Their 
own  love  is  exuberant  and  abounding,  though  often 
shy,  and  they  will  respond  more  heartily  and  naturally 
to  a  love  message  that  is  strong  and  dignified,  and  not 
sentimental  and  condescending,  than  they  will  to  any 
other  kind  of  message.  There  are  many  things  they  do 
not  know.  They  have  not  much  of  an  idea  of  service 
and  sacrifice;  their  lives  are  too  narrow  and  well  pro- 
tected for  that.  They  are  in  school,  and  that  occu- 
pies a  large  part  of  their  time  and  strength.  There  is 
as  yet  but  a  small  opportunity  for  service,  and  still  less 
for  sacrifice,  open  to  them.  Study  and  recreation  are 
about  all  that  is  expected  of  them.  But  they  do  know 
love.    They  are  living  on  it.    It  is  love  that  provides  the 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  71 

unearned  supply  of  their  needs.  They  know  love, 
therefore  the  appeal  is  to  be  in  the  realm  of  their  ex- 
perience. If  it  is  not,  the  message  will  mean  nothing 
to  them;  if  it  is,  it  will  mean  all  to  them.  Their  mes- 
sage is  a  love  message.  That  is  logical  and  natural. 
It  is  at  this  point  that  many  pastors  and  evangelists 
fail.  They  preach  a  message  almost  entirely  outside 
of  the  experience  of  this  age,  and  if  they  try  to  make 
their  mature  messages  simple,  they  make  them  silly, 
and  that  these  boys  and  girls  resent.  Parents  too 
make  a  serious  mistake  by  holding  their  children  back 
because  "they  do  not  understand" ;  but  they  do  under- 
stand love;  they  are  full  of  it.  They  see  its  manifesta- 
tions everywhere.  The  preacher  doesn't  have  to  ex- 
plain or  simplify  love.  They  know  it  as  well  as  he 
does.  He  needs  only  to  appeal  to  it.  These  boys  and 
girls  can  understand  God's  love  as  well  as  parents' 
love.  All  the  parents  need  to  do  is  to  ask  them  to 
respond  to  God's  love  as  they  do  to  their  love.  The 
imagination  is  very  vivid  at  this  age,  and  the  affections 
warm,  and  Jesus  can  be  made  both  real  and  dear.  The 
love  appeal  of  Jesus  is  powerful. 

2 

The  Appeal  to  the  Heroic 

Let  us  next  consider  the  message  to  be  delivered  to 
those  ranging  in  age  from  sixteen  to  thirty.  Here 
the  message  must  be  in  the  main  an  appeal  to  the 
heroic.  The  age  limit  on  the  underside  starts  about 
when  the  hero-worship  age  in  concrete  form  ends  and 
passes  into  the  heroic  ideal.  It  is  the  friendship-form- 
ing, love-making  age.     Here  is  where  the  ideal  of  the 


7^  EVANGELISM 

heroic  and  sacrificial  takes  its  rise.  Both  friendship 
and  love  involve  the  sacrifice  principle.  The  boy  wants 
to  be  a  soldier,  for  example.  This  is  the  ideal-making 
age,  sixteen  to  twenty. 

The  next  decade  is  the  career-planning  age,  in  which 
the  ideal  is  to  be  realized.  Love  issues  in  marriage, 
and  choices  of  lifework  are  made.  The  spirit  is  adven- 
turous and  active.  These  young  people  can  leave  home 
or  country  now  easier  than  they  can  at  any  later  time. 
It  is  an  age  of  knighthood,  beginning  in  sentiment,  but 
continuing  in  judgment.  The  young  people  are  seri- 
ously getting  ready  to  live,  planning  lifework,  found- 
ing homes,  starting  business,  doing  the  hard  founda- 
tion work  fearlessly,  facing  drudgery  and  overcoming 
obstacles.  Life  is  worth  while.  Their  holy  audacity 
will  brook  no  opposition.  They  can  work,  suffer,  sacri- 
fice because  they  are  fired  by  a  noble  ambition.  Their 
life  is  heroic.    The  appeal  is  to  be  to  the  heroic. 

Now  it  is  a  waste  of  words  to  talk  to  them  about 
death  and  judgment.  These  things  are  not  in  their 
program.  Deathbed  scenes  are  poor  illustrations  for 
such  an  age.  This  is  particularly  true  of  college  groups 
and  soldiers.  They  have  characterized  the  pathetic 
rather  caustically :  they  call  it  ''sob  stuff."  That  kills 
it  for  them.  They  want  to  make  their  lives  to  count 
for  the  most.  They  may  have  no  clear  idea  of  what 
the  real  worth  of  life  is.  They  want  success,  and  only 
the  exception  among  them  wants  to  be  either  a  slacker, 
one  who  will  not  begin,  or  a  quitter,  who  will  not  fin- 
ish. That  is  their  ideal  more  or  less  clearly  defined. 
Now,  their  practice  may  be  far  below  their  ideal — in- 
deed, inconsistent  with  it.     The  fault  is  not  so  much 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  73 

with  the  ideal  as  with  the  motive.  These  young  peo- 
ple are  not  afraid  of  hard  work,  self-denial,  hardship, 
danger,  etc.,  if  these  things  are  essential  to  success;  if 
they  are  stepping-stones  which  when  mastered  lead  to 
their  goal.  The  religious  appeal  is  to  match  their  ideal, 
to  define  it  in  terms  of  life's  highest  values,  and  then 
furnish  a  motive  powerful  enough  to  drive  them  to  it. 
Friendship,  love,  patriotism,  ambition,  are  their  natural 
incentives.  The  religious  motive  involves  all  these. 
Friendship  with  Christ,  love  for  Christ,  patriotism  for 
the  Kingdom,  ambition  to  make  the  most  of  life  on  its 
highest  level — these  natural  incentives  are  to  be  capi- 
talized for  the  Kingdom,  and  can  be,  within  that  age 
limit,  better  than  with  any  other  class  of  people.  Youth 
can  be  successfully  asked  to  dare  and  do  hard  things. 
A  safe  gospel  does  not  appeal  to  the  intrepid  spirit  of 
youth.  Loyalty  to  a  principle,  and  especially  loyalty 
to  a  person,  at  that  time,  is  very  strong.  "Lead  on, 
O  King  Eternal,"  'The  Son  of  God  Goes  Forth  to 
War,"  "Fight  the  Good  Fight"  appeal  more  powerfully 
to  that  group  than  "Come,  Ye  Sinners,"  "Just  as  I 
am,"  or  "Alas,  and  Did  My  Saviour  Bleed,"  etc.  They 
want  a  challenge  to  heroic  service,  to  daring  venture. 
This  class  is  more  responsive  to  religious  appeal  than 
any  other  class  just  because  of  the  intellectual  and  emo- 
tional make-up  of  their  age. 

3 
Failure  of  Weak  Appeals 

The  reason  why  more  are  not  reached  is  that  the 
appeal  is  too  weak.  They  are  asked  to  do  the  minimum 
that  will  make  their  lives  most  worth  while.     This  is 


74  EVANGELISM 

the  volunteer  age.  Volunteering  is  now  done  intelli- 
gently and  with  purpose.  Volunteering  may  be  done 
earlier,  by  the  power  of  suggestion,  and  later  because 
of  policy  or  pressure;  but  at  this  age  it  is  natural,  spon- 
taneous, courageous.  It  is  well  to  conserve  these 
strong,  native  impulses  for  Christ's  service.  The  ap- 
peal of  Christ's  manifold  character,  especially  his  poise, 
courage,  strength,  unselfishness,  is  powerful,  if  put  to 
that  age.  The  strong,  manly,  vigorous,  courageous 
Christ  appeals  to  this  age  rather  than  the  patient,  toil- 
ing, suffering  Christ.  Christ  the  conqueror,  rather 
than  Christ  the  sufferer,  is  to  be  preached.  They  are 
willing  to  suffer,  but  to  suffer  in  order  that  they  may 
conquer.  In  a  word,  it  is  the  heroic  age.  The  appeal 
that  is  most  effective  is  the  challenge.  For  this  group 
the  challenge  has  more  power  than  persuasion  has. 
Persuasion  sounds  too  much  like  coaxing.  They  would 
rather  be  commanded  than  coaxed.  Coaxing  is  too 
suggestive  of  the  appeal  of  weakness  to  obstinacy. 
It  has  not  the  ring  of  authority  which  youth  likes. 
Many  fail  in  college  evangelism  just  because  they  make 
religion  too  easy.  They  make  it  mean  little  more  than 
a  good  resolution,  or  the  turning  over  of  a  new  leaf. 
That  is  not  worth  while.  The  work  sometimes  is  hin- 
dered also  because  often  the  least  athletic  and  schol- 
arly students  on  the  campus  are  the  most  active  in 
religion.  The  vigorous  student  thinks  that  religion 
only  fits  the  negative,  the  mediocre,  and  the  weak. 
Now,  if  the  evangelistic  message  justifies  that  opinion, 
the  real  leader  of  the  college  body  will  have  nothing  of 
it.  The  evangelistic  message  must  be  put  with  such 
strength  and  directness,   religion  must  be  shown  to 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  75 

be  so  brave,  manly,  sacrificial,  enduring,  that  the 
strongest  man  in  college  will  feel  like  a  coward  if  he 
does  not  accept  the  challenge.  In  giving  the  challenge 
like  that  some  may  be  discouraged  and  fear  that  it  is 
impossible  for  them.  It  is  inevitable  that  some  will 
not  accept  it,  but  it  is  better  to  discourage  the  weak 
with  a  great  gospel  than  to  disgust  the  strong  with  a 
mean  gospel.  The  fear  can  be  allayed  even  for  the 
weak  by  a  strong  setting  forth  of  the  Almighty  Christ 
who  is  to  be  their  Yokefellow.  After  all,  it  is  not  what 
they  can  do,  but  what  they  and  Christ  together  can  do 
— and  that  is  all  that  ought  to  be  done.  That  must  be 
made  clear  to  all  groups.  Religion  is  not  a  thing  but 
a  relation.  The  Christian  is  not  one  who  believes  cer- 
tain things  and  tries  to  do  certain  things,  but  one  who 
is  in  personal  fellowship  with  Christ.  That  personal 
element  must  be  stressed  in  all  appeals  and  challenges. 
That  will  solve  more  problems  and  answer  more  ob- 
jections and  prevent  more  evasions  of  all  classes  than 
anything  else.  The  best  answer  to  the  question,  ''How 
can  I  keep  in  the  fellowship  of  Christ?"  is,  "Christ  will 
keep  you  in  his  fellowship  unless  you  break  away  of 
your  own  accord."  It  is  not  a  question  of  their  keep- 
ing Christ,  but  of  Christ  keeping  them  unless  they 
refuse. 

The  heroic  appeal,  then,  is  to  be  made  to  the  heroic 
age,  and  all  the  powerful  incentives  of  that  age  are  to 
be  capitalized  and  used  for  the  Kingdom's  purpose. 
That  would  be  the  plain  and  sane  psychology  and 
common-sense  evangelism  for  that  age.  The  message 
must  not  only  be  true,  it  must  be  pertinent.  When 
the  preacher  knows  that  his  message  is  both  true  and 


76  EVANGELISM 

pertinent  he  can  reasonably  expect  results  which  will 
give  him  that  kind  of  assurance  in  preaching  that 
goes  a  long  way  toward  securing  results. 

4 

The  Message  to  Middle  Life 

Now,  what  shall  be  the  form  or  content  of  the  mes- 
sage to  middle  life,  say  from  thirty  to  fifty-five?  Of 
course  these  divisions  are  rather  arbitrary,  and  the 
limits  are  put  rather  far  apart.  This  group  may  be 
called  the  middle-life  group.  This  group  includes  the 
''fatal  forty."  This  is  perhaps  the  age  of  greatest  re- 
ligious indifference.  A  better  term,  perhaps,  would 
be  "religious  inattention."  There  is  a  reason  for  it. 
This  is  the  age  of  absorption  and  preoccupation.  Fam- 
ily cares  and  business  preoccupation  leave  little  room 
for  attention  to  anything  else.  The  pace  at  this  period 
of  life  is  so  killing  that  leisure  is  devoted  to  recreation 
of  rather  an  extreme  sort.  The  claim  is  that  the  busi- 
ness and  home  tension  is  so  great  that  it  must  be  offset 
by  a  similar  sort  of  recreation.  Sunday  golf  and  pic- 
nics, yachting,  automobile  rides  all  day  with  the  fam- 
ily, visiting,  etc. — these  leave  little  time  for  religion 
or  church.  The  moral  sense  is  not  dead,  it  is  asleep. 
The  mind  is  preoccupied  with  other  things.  If  a  man 
is  successful  at  all  in  business,  it  is  at  this  time.  Com- 
petition is  so  keen  that  the  business  must  have  his  un- 
divided attention.  ''Business  first"  is  his  motto.  Then 
he  must  look  after  his  health  to  keep  that  business 
going. 

The  mother  is  rearing  the  children,  getting  them  off 
to  school,  so  "Family  first"  is  her  motto.     Perhaps 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  yj 

when  the  weather  is  not  good  for  motoring  they  send 
the  children  to  Sunday  school.  These  people  are  not 
always  hostile  to  religion,  but  they  have  no  time  for  it. 
It  is  not  an  essential  matter  now.  They  expect  some 
day  when  life  is  less  strenuous  to  give  more  time,  or 
some  time,  to  religion,  but  they  cannot  think  of  it  now. 

The  thing  that  they  do  not  see  is  that  they  are  les- 
sening their  capacity  for  religion,  and  when  the  long- 
looked-for  leisure  comes  they  have  no  taste  or  desire 
for  religious  things.  That  is  the  tragedy:  they  have 
been  false  to  themselves.  They  allowed  their  success 
to  make  failures  out  of  themselves.  That  happens  so 
frequently  that  it  needs  no  further  comment.  The 
preacher  must  understand  that  group. 

The  two  words  that  bulk  big  with  that  group  are 
"responsibility"  and  "duty."  They  are  faced  with 
them  every  day.  No  man  can  be  in  business  without 
feeling  the  force  of  these.  He  is  responsible  to  some- 
body, somebody  is  responsible  to  him.  Obligation  in 
contracts  and  so  on,  hours  of  business,  keeping  ap- 
pointments, the  performance  of  duties — these  matters 
are  all  perfectly  clear.  Business  success  depends  on 
them.  This  man,  it  is  said,  holds  a  responsible  posi- 
tion. He  talks  of  obligation,  of  the  weight  of  responsi- 
bility, of  the  rigid  rules  of  duty,  "duty  before  pleas- 
ure," holding  people  to  contracts,  etc. 

That  same  thing  is  true  of  the  home — duty  to  chil- 
dren, responsibility  for  health,  education,  proper  care, 
etc.  "Duty"  and  "responsibility"  are  the  two  great 
words  during  that  period. 

Now,  the  thing  that  men  and  women  forget  is  that 
their  highest  duty  and   most  solemn   responsibilities 


78  EVANGELISM 

are  not  met  at  all.  "Duty"  and  "responsibility"  are 
to  be  the  two  great  words  in  the  evangelistic  message. 
These  men  must  be  made  to  see  that  their  first  duty 
is  to  God.  God  holds  them  responsible  for  the  right 
use,  which  is  the  Kingdom's  use,  of  their  success  in 
business.  What  are  they  going  to  do  with  their  money  ? 
They  are  only  stewards.  Do  they  recognize  their 
obligation  to  God  for  health  and  life  and  opportunity? 
They  discharge  duties  to  men,  but  do  they  discharge 
that  highest  duty  to  all  men,  of  helping  to  make  a 
better  world,  and  get  the  will  of  God  done  among  men? 
Surely  not  if  they  have  left  God  out  of  the  program 
of  their  lives.  They  recognize  claims;  they  have  to 
deal  with  them.  The  country  makes  claims  on  their 
incomes  and  profits.  Press  the  just  claims  of  God  on 
their  lives.  They  have  recognized  their  responsibility 
to  their  sons,  as  to  food,  clothing,  education,  a  start  in 
life;  but  they  have  not  discharged  that  responsibility 
to  God  in  the  religious  care  of  these  sons,  or  proper 
examples  to  them. 

That  same  will  be  true  of  mothers.  They  have  been 
faithful  in  many  ways,  but  in  the  main  way  they  have 
failed.  It  may  be  they  taught  their  little  chil- 
dren to  say  their  prayers,  but  they  themselves  never 
pray,  nor  set  a  good  example  to  their  children. 

These  people  need  to  be  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
their  duty  to  God,  to  their  children,  to  the  world. 
That  self-centered,  self-satisfied  idea  of  life  must  be 
changed.  The  appeal  here  will  be  in  making  clear 
God's  claim  on  them  and  God's  expectation  of  them. 
The  message  can  be  very  practical.  This  period  of  life 
is  apt  to  be  the  most  selfish.    A  gospel  of  duty,  of  un- 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  79 

selfishness,  of  service  can  be  put  so  straight  to  them 
that  there  will  be  no  way  of  evading  it.  The  sin  of 
selfishness  is  their  besetting  sin,  and  they  are  utterly 
failing  in  life,  with  all  of  their  work  and  prosperity,  if 
that  sin  is  let  to  eat  away  their  souls. 

Responsibility  is  to  be  the  keynote  of  the  evangelis- 
tic message  to  them.  These  people,  if  rightly  ap- 
proached, will  come  to  the  church.  If  not,  they  must 
be  quietly  dealt  with  in  their  homes  or  offices,  or  both. 
But  the  same  note  that  is  to  be  in  the  sermon  is  to  be 
in  the  conversation — duty  and  responsibility.  They  are 
tied  up  to  other  lives,  for  whose  welfare  they  are  re- 
sponsible. They  owe  a  duty  to  God.  That  is  to  be 
the  appeal,  whether  public  or  private.  They  must  be 
dealt  with  frankly,  persistently,  but  sympathetically. 
The  preacher  is  only  calling  them  to  their  best,  for  their 
own  sake,  for  others'  sake,  for  Christ's  sake. 

5 
Message  to  the  Under-Man 

Now,  there  is  another  class  within  these  age  limits 
and  running  a  little  beyond  it — the  class  that  will  not 
go  to  the  church.  They  may  go  to  a  rescue  mission, 
but  evangelism  cannot  leave  them  out  of  account  if 
it  is  to  gospel  every  creature,  and  present  every  man 
at  last  perfect  in  Jesus  Christ.  They  are  the  so-called 
down-and-out  class.  Society  and  industry  have  thrown 
them  out.  Nobody  will  care  for  them  when  they  are 
economically  unprofitable  and  a  social  menace,  if  the 
church  does  not.  The  church  must  be  their  last  friend, 
because  Christ  is. 

What  is  to  be  the  message  to  them  ?    To  the  younger 


8o  EVANGELISM 

and  more  defiant,  the  judgment  of  God  on  the  unre- 
pentant. The  language  of  force  and  fear  is  the  only 
language  they  understand.  The  terrible  outcome  of 
sin  can  be  preached  to  some  of  them.  Many  in  rescue 
missions  are  reached  that  way.  God  can  be  presented 
as  loving  and  holy  and  just,  and  because  he  is  that,  and 
more,  he  cannot  be  trifled  with,  nor  can  sin  go  on  al- 
ways with  impunity.  The  justice  of  God  can  be  set 
forth  to  the  willful,  deliberate,  defiant  sinners  who 
scoff  at  law  and  government,  who  are  the  enemies  of 
society.  The  rugged  side,  the  judgment  side  of  the 
gospel,  needs  to  be  preached  to  them  with  such  au- 
thority and  force  that  they  will  give  attention. 
Here  is  where  the  preacher  can  be  lightning. 
This  too  for  that  hard  smug  class  who  fatten  on  ill- 
gotten  gains  and  traffic  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men 
and  women  for  gain,  those  who  manage  the  institutions 
of  human  ruin.  The  message  is  to  be  like  that  of 
Amos  to  the  recreant  Israel  of  his  day,  like  Elijah 
to  Ahab  and  his  house. 

There  is  a  place  for  the  preaching  of  the  vengeance 
of  God  on  those  who  trample  upon  the  weak  and  wreck 
all  who  come  in  their  way.  They  must  be  made  to 
see  that  a  day  of  reckoning  is  coming,  and  they  must 
repent  of  their  sins,  or  be  overtaken  by  the  ravages  of 
judgment.  Those  who  have  been  guilty  of  the  un- 
speakable frightfulness  in  the  great  world  war  need 
something  more  than  a  soft  gospel  preached  to  them. 
The  justice  and  holiness  of  God — that  is  the  message 
for  them.  It  is  not  easy  to  preach  to  that  class.  It 
takes  courage  and  candor,  but  they  must  have  the  gos- 
pel, but  the  gospel  in  terms  that  they  can  understand. 


THE  MESSAGE  (SPECIFIC)  8i 

There  is  no  escaping  the  justice  of  God.  That  is  judg- 
ment preaching.  Not  a  small  class  of  to-day  needs 
exactly  that  type  of  preaching. 


Message  of  Hope  to  the  Despairing 
But  there  is  a  wrecked  class  upon  whom  sin  has  done 
its  worst;  the  despairing  and  despaired-of  class.  No 
use  to  talk  about  hell  to  them;  they  are  in  hell.  No 
use  to  talk  about  the  wreckage  of  sin ;  they  are  already 
wrecked.  The  judgment  can  only  mean  a  little  more 
of  what  they  have.  They  have  lost  all  hope,  will  power, 
self-respect,  friends,  home,  health — all  gone.  So  in  a 
sort  of  stolid,  fatalistic  way  they  have  submitted  to 
their  long-drawn-out  misery  and  look  for  nothing  bet- 
ter. Yet  they  must  have  the  gospel  preached  even  to 
them".  Evangelism  is  for  them  also.  What  will  the 
message  be  ?  It  is  a  difficult  class  to  preach  to  or  deal 
with,  for  one  can  do  so  little  with  despair.  What  shall 
the  message  be  to  them  ?  The  message  of  hope.  God 
can  help  them  to  come  back.  Christ  will  recreate  them 
into  new  men  and  women.  There  is  hope  for  them, 
a  better  life  for  them;  God  will  give  them  another 
chance.  They  must  place  complete  dependence  on  him, 
now  that  they  have  no  longer  any  self  on  which  to 
depend.  A  complete  giving  of  themselves  over  to  the 
forgiving,  helping  Christ,  and  they  can  be  saved.  This 
is  desperate  preaching,  for  the  people  are  desperate. 
Hope,  hope,  hope,  and  more  hope,  must  be  poured  into 
them  until  at  last  the  little  linger  of  hope  that  is  left  in 
their  burned-out  lives  kindles,  and  the  long-dead  initia- 
tive comes  to  life  again,  and  they  dare  take  hold  of  the 


82  EVANGELISM 

forgiving  grace  of  God.  No  use  of  preaching  hope  to 
the  defiant,  hardened  sinner,  else  he  will  go  on  sinning ; 
but  these  are  about  through  sinning  willfuly ;  their  wills 
are  gone ;  they  sin  automatically.  Hope  will  bring  them 
back.  Hope  must  be  preached  even  before  love.  All 
whom  they  have  known  and  loved,  or  were  loved  by 
long  since  gave  them  up.  Love  failed,  but  hope  tells 
them,  "When  my  father  and  mother  forsake  me,  then 
the  Lord  will  take  me  up."  Will  he?  Hope  says, 
"Yes,  trust  him."  This  class  will  take  no  step  toward 
reformation  until  hope  is  inspired  that  it  can  be  done. 
They  must  be  told  that  to  Christ  there  are  no  impossi- 
ble cases  if  they  will  give  him  a  chance.  They  do  not 
have  to  go  to  him.  He  has  come  to  them.  They  are  to 
let  him  save  them.  The  glory  of  the  gospel  is  that  it 
has  hope  for  that  class.  No  other  gospel  has  hope  for 
the  hopeless;  but  Christ's  evangel  knows  of  no  hope- 
less class  except  the  willfully  incorrigible  who  refuse 
to  be  saved. 

The  aged,  the  wrecked,  the  hopeless  are  all  in- 
cluded in  Christ's  plan  of  redemption  and  for  them  sal- 
vation is  made  available  if  they  will  only  accept  it  as 
it  is  freely  offered  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  Bible  has  abund- 
ant messages  for  all  classes.  The  gospel  of  love,  of  hero- 
ism, of  duty,  of  idealism,  of  hope,  of  comfort  runs  all 
through  the  Bible,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  preacher  in 
his  evangelistic  work  to  find  and  offer  the  messages 
that  best  meet  the  needs  of  the  people  to  whom  he  min- 
isters. 


PART  II 
PASTORAL  EVANGELISM 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM 

A  CHANGE  of  policy  and  method  must  accompany, 
or  at  least  closely  follow,  a  change  of  conditions  or 
else  failure  will  be  inevitable.  In  many  parts  of  the 
country  conditions  have  so  changed  that  the  old  method 
of  revivals  will  no  longer  work.  This  will  be  dis- 
tressing only  to  those  who  think  more  of  methods 
than  of  results;  but  those  who  want  to  get  the  work 
of  God  done  in  the  world,  and  are  concerned  wdth 
methods  only  as  far  as  they  bring  results,  will  welcome 
any  necessary  changes  of  method.  The  only  danger  is 
that  they  will  be  so  slow  in  adopting  some  methods 
which  will  work,  that  the  great  evangelistic  opportunity 
will  be  lost  through  the  changed  conditions.  Note  first, 
then,  the  changed  conditions. 

Changed  Conditions 

The  first  and  rather  disheartening  change  is  that 
which  has  so  seriously  affected  churchgoing.  The  habit 
of  churchgoing  is  dying  out  in  certain  quarters.  Few 
people,  even  church  members,  go  twice  a  day.  Where 
they  go  but  once  it  is  usually  in  the  morning.  The 
Sunday  evening  services  are  poorly  attended,  and  those 
who  go  are  generally  the  best  people  of  the  church. 
They  go  from  long  habit,  or  a  sense  of  loyalty  to  the 
church,  or  love  for  the  pastor.     Those  who  are  not 

8s 


86  EVANGELISM 

professed  Christians  rarely  go  either  morning  or  even- 
ing. In  many  places  even  the  young  people  who  have 
been  to  Sunday  school  and  the  young  people's  meeting 
do  not  attend  the  evening  preaching  service.  The  pas- 
tor faces  at  night  a  few  tired  saints  and  a  large  num- 
ber of  yawning,  empty  pews.  If  church  members  do 
not  attend  church,  of  course  it  will  hardly  be  expected 
that  nonchurch  people  will.  That  means  that  there 
is  little  evangelistic  opportunity  in  the  morning  and 
less  in  the  evening.  If  the  pastor  holds  revival  meet- 
ings, they  will  be  attended  by  a  few  anyway,  and  almost 
all  of  those  who  do  attend  will  be  the  most  deeply 
spiritual  people  in  the  church.  There  is  no  need  of 
preaching  an  evangelistic  sermon  or  making  an  appeal 
to  these  people,  much  less  is  there  need  of  calling  for 
a  decision  from  them.  The  pastor  feels  both  the  em- 
barrassment and  the  incongruity  of  it  all  and  often 
makes  no  evangelistic  effort  whatever.  Now,  if  one, 
in  these  circumstances,  is  to  follow  the  old-time 
methods  of  revival  meetings,  he  can  see  failure  be- 
fore he  begins  the  meetings.  The  change,  then,  from 
the  churchgoing  habit  to  a  nonchurchgoing  habit  puts 
out  of  date  the  old  method  of  announcing  that  revival 
meetings  will  be  held  during  a  given  month,  usually 
January,  and  then  expecting  that  the  meetings  will 
draw  the  unconverted  to  the  church.  In  many  places 
they  will  not  draw  even  the  church  members  to  the 
church.  A  good  many  things  have  led  to  the  change 
of  this  habit,  such  as  Sunday  sports,  automobiling,  and 
a  steady  lowering  of  the  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
Sabbath  through  the  laxer  uses  of  it  by  our  large  for- 
eign populations,  who  have  brought  with  them  the  holi- 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     87 

dajidea,  rather  than  the  Holy  Day  idea,  which  had 
long  obtained  with  us.  Sunday  has  become  largely  a 
day  of  recreation  rather  than  of  worship. 

Whether  we  like  it  or  not  that  condition  has  come 
about,  and  we  must  prepare  to  meet  it  rather  than  to 
use  the  old  methods  which  do  not  recognize  that  such 
a  condition  has  come.  Industrial  pressure  has  much 
to  do  with  making  Sunday  a  holiday.  The  overworked 
claim  they  must  have  it  for  family  life  and  play  or  else 
for  longer  leisure  for  rest  and  sleep.  Anyhow,  the  habit 
of  nonchurchgoing  has  set  in,  and  it  must  be  reckoned 
with ;  to  ignore  it  is  folly.  That  is,  the  condition  must 
be  met,  not  ignored.  If  the  church  has  not  now  the 
kind  of  evangelistic  methods  which  will  meet  that  new 
condition,  it  must  create  them.  In  most  places  the  old 
methods  will  not — or  at  least  do  not — meet  the  new 
conditions.  But  neither  the  world  nor  the  church  was 
ever  more  desperately  in  need  of  a  thoroughgoing,  sane, 
and  constructive  evangelism  than  now,  and  it  is  pre- 
cisely that  kind  of  evangelism  that  is  the  hope  of  both 
the  world  and  the  church. 

The  Old  Emphasis 

The  second  change  is  that  of  emphasis.  In  the  past, 
indeed,  up  to  quite  recent  times,  the  emphasis  was  on 
the  individual.  The  call  was  to  repentance  from  sin. 
The  regeneration  of  the  individual  man  was  the  end  of 
evangelism.  Sin  formed  a  large  part  of  evangelistic 
preaching.  To  get  to  heaven  and  escape  hell  were 
mighty  motives  presented  by  pastors  and  evangelists 
for  the  rule  of  conduct.  Judgment  for  the  sinner  was 
always  standing  in  the  background.    The  great  aim  of 


88  EVANGELISM 

life  was  to  get  ready  to  die.  "Prepare  to  meet  thy 
God"  was  interpreted  and  forced  to  that  end.  Meet- 
ing mother  in  heaven,  or  seeing  Jesus  with  the  nail 
prints,  the  thorn  marks,  and  the  spear  wound,  were 
topics  most  stressed  to  get  men  to  give  up  their  sin  and 
get  ready  for  heaven.  The  torments  of  hell  and  the 
anger  of  God  against  the  sinner — no  mercy  beyond  the 
grave — were  subjects  that  were  presented  with  great 
skill  and  power,  and  with  a  conviction  and  seriousness 
that  carried  great  weight,  in  order  that  men  might  be 
deterred  from  sinning. 

That  kind  of  preaching  to-day  would  make  little 
impression  in  most  places,  and  would  not  be  tolerated 
in  some  places.  The  great  realities  of  sin  and  its 
consequences,  the  fact  that  character  fixes  destiny,  must 
still  be  stressed,  but  not  in  the  bold  and  almost  cruel 
form  of  yesterday.  The  jailer  idea  of  God  has  given 
way  to  the  idea  of  his  Fatherhood.  The  love  and 
Fatherhood  of  God  make  sin  more  unnatural  and 
shameless  than  ever,  but  preaching  has  lost  much  of 
its  lurid  vehemence.  The  motive  of  love  is  more  ap- 
pealed to  to-day  than  the  motive  of  fear,  and  the  motive 
to  serve  than  the  motive  to  just  save  one's  soul.  The 
emphasis  to-day  for  the  most  j)art  is  social  rather  than 
individual.  The  effort  is  not  so  much  to  get  to  heaven 
some  day  as  it  is  to  get  heaven  down  here  on  the  earth 
to-day.  The  regeneration  of  the  individual  is  not  so 
much  stressed  as  the  reformation  of  society.  That 
emphasis  itself  would  require  a  different  method  of 
presentation. 

The  kind  of  revival  that  is  attempted  in  some  quar- 
ters has  not  much  to  do  directly  with  the  church.   The 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     89 

attempt  to  reform  society  is  made  by  better  housing 
and  working  conditions,  giving  large  attention  to  sani- 
tation and  recreation,  and  very  little  is  said  about  re- 
pentance and  regeneration;  indeed,  some  go  as  far  as 
to  say  the  less  said  about  them  the  better.  That  is  as 
foolish  as  it  is  useless. 

Repentance  and  regeneration  are  as  vital  and  import- 
ant as  ever,  but  they  do  not  get  the  same  consideration 
under  the  social  emphasis  that  they  did  under  the  older 
individual  emphasis.  It  is  reformation  rather  than 
regeneration  that  is  stressed.  The  appeal  is  not  so 
personal  and  direct  as  it  used  to  be.  You  can  invite  a 
man  to  the  altar,  to  an  inquiry  room,  to  standi  etc., 
but  you  cannot  ask  a  community  to  do  these  things. 
The  appeal  is  more  general  and  the  response  is  more 
general,  that  is,  less  concrete  and  specific.  So  that  the 
old  method  of  evangelism  will  not  work  where  the 
social  emphasis  has  displaced  the  individual  emphasis. 
But  let  us  notice  this  in  passing :  there  will  be  no  perma- 
nent social  reform  that  does  not  rest  back  on  individual 
repentance  and  regeneration.  If  the  individual  will  not 
come  to  the  church,  the  church  must  reach  him  in  some 
other  way. 

The  Social  Method 

The  social  emphasis,  however,  necessitates  a  depar- 
ture from  the  old-time  method.  The  social  emphasis 
can  neither  be  fought  nor  ignored.  The  two  forms  of 
method  are  not  mutually  exclusive;  they  are  supple- 
mentary. The  individual  must  be  saved  to  save  so- 
ciety, and  society  must  be  saved  to  keep  the  individual 
saved.     The  point  here  is  that  in  many  quarters  the 


90  EVANGELISM 

social  emphasis  is  the  dominant  one,  and  to  meet  it 
there  must  be  a  different  approach  and  a  different 
appeal  if  evangelism  is  to  be  effective. 

The  third  change  is  the  change  of  intellectual  at- 
titude. The  whole  intellectual  outlook  differs  so  widely 
from  forty  to  fifty  years  ago  and  back  that  the  methods 
back  of  the  presentation  and  appeal  must  differ  if  men 
are  reached  to-day.  In  the  popular  as  well  as  in  much 
learned  thinking  a  statement  of  the  Bible  does  not 
settle  the  question  once  for  all.  The  Bible  is  not  ac- 
cepted to-day  as  final  authority  on  all  questions,  as  it 
used  to  be;  therefore  the  biblical  appeal  has  not  the 
force  it  once  had  on  the  average  unchurched  man.  The 
progress  of  physical  science,  the  generally  accepted 
doctrine  of  evolution,  and  the  historical  and  literary 
criticism  of  the  Bible  known  as  the  higher  criticism, 
have  contributed  toward  the  unsettling  of  many  peo- 
ple in  the  traditional  beliefs  about  the  Bible  and  its 
messages.  Few  things  are  taken  on  authority  to-day 
by  educated  people.  Indeed,  many  of  the  bright  boys 
and  girls  in  our  best  high  schools,  and  especially  young 
men  and  young  women  in  college,  will  not  accept  many 
of  the  traditional  beliefs.  We  may  not  like  it,  but  we 
must  face  the  changed  intellectual  attitude  and  deal 
with  it  as  best  we  can.  It  will  not  do  to  treat  it  lightly 
or  ignore  it.  To  tell  our  young  people  to  stop  thinking 
and  accept  what  they  are  told  in  the  matter  of  religion 
is  absurd.  They  simply  will  not  do  it.  The  thing  for 
them  to  do  is  not  to  think  less  but  to  think  more — to 
think  their  way  through.  The  most  dangerous  place 
to  stay  is  half  way  in  one's  thinking.  There  is  faith 
on  both  sides  of  doubt.     Almost  every  transition  age 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     91 

is  an  age  of  doubt.  We  must  think  from  the  old  faith, 
through  doubt  to  the  new  faith,  to  the  faith  in  the 
things  that  remain  after  all  the  tests  have  been  made. 
Our  age  has  not  thought  its  way  all  through  yet,  so  it 
is  an  age  of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  and  bright  young 
people  get  into  that  intellectual  haze  at  an  early  period. 
It  will  not  do  to  scold  them.  They  cannot  help  it. 
They  found  it  in  books  in  the  schools,  in  the  newspa- 
pers, and  they  hear  much  of  uncertainty,  or  at  least 
negative  putting  of  truth  even  from  the  pulpit.  Now 
all  this  has  had  its  effect  upon  the  old-fashioned 
method  of  evangelism,  and  very  many  young  people  are 
not  reached  in  that  way  to-day. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  progress  of  science,  the  doc- 
trine of  evolution,  and  biblical  criticism,  when  they  are 
understood,  have  done  a  great  deal  more  for  religion 
and  the  Bible  than  they  have  done  against  them.  Re- 
ligion is  less  emotional  perhaps,  but  more  ethical.  It 
relates  less  to  heaven  and  more  to  earth.  It  is  not  so 
much  a  solace  to  die  by  as  a  rule  to  live  by.  The  Bible 
has  been  made  more  easily  understood.  If  some  diffi- 
culties have  been  raised,  many  have  been  settled.  It 
is  more  preachable.  It  needs  less  defense  and  more 
proclamation. 

The  views  that  now  obtain  of  God's  Fatherhood  and 
Christ's  brotherhood  are  far  more  wholesome  and 
winning  than  the  view  they  displaced.  Indeed,  the 
modern  viewpoint  carried  with  it  far  more  gains  than 
losses.  We  are  better  off  than  we  used  to  be,  but  many 
people  have  not  become  adjusted  to  the  new  viewpoint, 
have  not  thought  their  v/ay  through ;  have  looked  only 
at  the  uncertainties  that  have  been  raised  and  not  at 


92  EVANGELISM 

the  great  certainties  that  have  been  estabHshed,  so 
there  are  doubt,  hesitancy,  indifference,  and  in  some 
cases  hostihty  to  both  the  Bible  and  rehgion.  To  deal 
successfully  with  these  changed  conditions  we  must 
change  our  methods  to  meet  the  needs  of  our  day.  To- 
day is  not  yesterday ;  we  cannot  do  as  our  fathers  did. 
We  ought  to  do  better  than  they  did,  for  we  have  more 
light.  But  the  saddle  horse  is  not  the  automobile,  nor 
the  stagecoach  the  express  train,  nor  is  the  tallow  dip 
the  electric  light.  We  are  not  the  worse  for  the  change 
in  these  material  matters,  nor  need  we  be  for  the 
change  in  church  methods.  It  is  the  life  that  is  to 
be  guarded,  not  the  form.  If  we  get  men  and  women 
saved  by  the  new  method,  or  any  method  that  works, 
we  are  as  well  off  as  the  fathers  were  who  successfully 
used  the  methods  which  do  not  now  work  with  us.  The 
method  is  not  so  important  as  long  as  the  work  gets 
done. 

The  changed  conditions,  then,  are  the  first  cause 
which  make  the  old  methods  no  longer  useful.  The 
outlook  is  dark  only  if  we  do  not  constructively  meet 
the  changed  conditions.  The  Bible  will  be  more  fully 
believed,  will  be  more  loyally  served,  mankind  will  be 
more  unselfishly  helped,  the  world  more  permanently 
bettered  to-morrow  than  they  were  yesterday. 

Professional  Evangelism 

The  second  cause  is  the  rise  of  professional  evangel- 
ism on  a  large  scale.  There  have  always  been  evangel- 
ists, and  they  will  be  always  needed.  Some  men  and 
women,  both  by  temperament  and  training,  are  better 
fitted  for  that  work  than  they  are  for  the  regular  pas- 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     93 

torate.  They  have  their  place  and  importance,  but 
when  professional  evangelism  is  made  a  substitute  for 
pastoral  evangelism  the  effect  is  not  wholesome  either 
on  the  church  or  on  the  pastor.  The  disadvantages  to 
the  church  are  fourfold. 

I .  First,  the  church  comes  to  the  belief  that  it  cannot 
have  a  revival  without  outside  help;  that  is,  that  its 
own  pastor  cannot  do  the  work.  Here  the  church 
commits  two  errors.  First,  the  thing  which  the  church 
does  not  seem  to  see  is,  that  if  it  did  the  same  amount 
of  work  for  its  own  pastor,  and  as  cheerfully,  as  it 
does  for  the  evangelist,  it  would  be  a  good  deal  better 
off.  The  competent  evangelist  sees  to  it  that  the  church 
does  about  all  the  work  that  is  done.  He  only  sug- 
gests and  directs,  but  the  church  thinks  that  he  is 
doing  it  all.  It  thinks  that  he  is  drawing  the  crowd. 
In  part  that  is  true,  but  the  part  which  the  church  does 
not  seem  to  see  is  that  it  is  itself  organized  into  per- 
sonal workers'  bands,  who  in  a  great  variety  of  ways 
are  inviting  the  outside  people  to  the  church,  calling  for 
them  and  taking  them  to  the  meetings.  The  church 
enthusiastically  does  this  work  because  the  evangelist 
asks  that  it  be  done.  If  the  same  work  was  done 
for  the  pastor,  a  sort  of  sustained  revival  would  be 
going  twelve  months  of  the  year  instead  of  one.  The 
results  of  the  revival  are  due  far  more  to  what  the 
church  does  than  to  what  the  evangelist  does.  Every 
pastor  cannot  have  a  revival  whenever  he  wants  it, 
but  every  church  can.  When  any  church — pastor  and 
people — will  do  the  work  and  pay  the  price,  a  revival 
can  be  had  without  outside  help,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
make  either  pastor  or  people  realize  it. 


94  EVANGELISM 

2.  The  second  error  is  that  the  church  does  not  see 
that  if  it  put  at  the  pastor's  disposal  for  evangehstic 
work  in  the  parish  as  much  money  as  it  gives  to  the 
evangelist,  far  more  and  better  work  would  be  done. 
The  church  gladly  pays  the  bills  for  the  lighting,  heat- 
ing, advertising,  printing,  music,  etc.,  amounting  in  six 
weeks  to  five  hundred  dollars,  and  then  with  equal  or 
greater  cheerfulness  gives  the  evangelist  his  enter- 
tainment, and  a  freewill  offering  of,  say,  a  thousand 
dollars.  The  campaign  cost  at  least  fifteen  hundred 
dollars.  The  same  church  may  pay  the  pastor  no  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year.  He  could  invest 
the  fifteen  hundred  dollars  paid  one  for  six  weeks' 
work  to  far  greater  advantage  by  spreading  a  more 
efficient  service  over  twelve  months  of  the  year.  But 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  make  the  church  see  it,  much 
less  act  upon  it.  In  a  word,  if  the  church  gave  us  much 
service  and  money  to  its  own  pastor  as  it  gives  to  a 
professional  evangelist — who  often  pushes  the  pastor 
into  the  background — it  would  be  better  off. 

This  is  no  criticism  of  the  professional  evangelist, 
his  motives  or  his  work,  nor  does  it  mean  that  he  is 
not  of  very  great  importance  in  the  work  of  the 
church.  It  does  mean,  however,  that  if  the  church 
imagines  that  its  own  pastor  is  not,  or  cannot  be,  an 
evangelist,  in  most  cases  it  makes  a  great  mistake. 

The  second  disadvantage  to  the  church  is,  that  it 
comes  to  believes  there  is  only  one  kind  of  a  revival 
that  will  be  effective,  and  that  is  the  spectacular.  (The 
word  "spectacular"  here  is  not  used  in  any  invidious 
sense.)  That  is  the  sort  which  the  professional  evan- 
gelist usually  conducts — the  large  choir,  press  commit- 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     95 

tee;  personal  workers'  groups,  who  circularize  the 
neighborhoods;  shop  meetings,  midweek,  Sundays, 
men's  meetings,  parlor  meetings,  and  other  conspicuous 
activities.  The  church  seems  to  think  that  it  can  have 
a  real  revival  in  no  other  way.  Anything  less  than 
that  would  not  appeal  to  the  church,  and  if  the  pastor 
cannot  conduct  a  revival  that  way,  he  had  better  get 
some  one  who  can;  and  as  the  average  pastor  cannot, 
little  or  nothing  is  done.  Of  course  all  the  professional 
evangelists  do  not  work  that  way,  but  the  methods 
are  pretty  well  standardized.  The  average  pastor  can- 
not conduct  a  revival  the  same  way  that  the  average 
professional  evangelist  does,  and  for  the  best  perma- 
nent interest  of  the  church  perhaps  ought  not. 

3.  The  third  disadvantage  is  that  the  church  comes 
to  believe  that  an  individual  church  cannot  have  a  re- 
vival, because  most  of  the  professional  evangelists 
want  union  services.  That  is  all  right  from  the  evan- 
gelists' viewpoint.  There  are  limits  to  their  time  and 
strength,  so  they  want  to  get  the  largest  possible  hear- 
ing for  their  message.  They  want  to  reach  the  great- 
est possible  number  of  people.  The  impression  gets 
abroad,  then,  that  the  evangelist  will  not  go  to  an 
individual  church.  Now,  it  so  happens  that  in  many 
places  union  meetings  are  not  practicable,  and  in  some 
places  hardly  possible.  If,  therefore,  the  pastor  can- 
not have  a  revival  without  outside  help,  and  if  the 
outside  help  will  not  come  to  an  individual  church, 
and  if  a  union  meeting  cannot  be  held,  of  course  there 
can  be  no  revival.  So  year  after  year  no  revival  is 
attempted. 

That  at  once  brings  us  to  the  fourth  disadvantage, 


96  EVANGELISM 

namely,  initiative  is  destroyed.  The  church  fails  of 
its  fundamental  mission — to  get  folks  saved.  It  there- 
fore loses  power  and  does  little  more  in  the  community 
than  mark  time,  and  in  some  cases  slowly  dies  out. 
That  is  the  fate  of  the  church  which  has  no  faith  in  its 
own  evangelistic  possibiHties  under  the  leadership  of 
its  own  pastor. 

Effect  on  the  Pastor 

The  next  point  to  be  considered  is  the  effect  upon 
the  pastor.  Not  only  has  professional  evangelism  af- 
fected the  church,  through  no  fault  of  its  own,  for  it 
tried  to  help  the  church  and  the  church  made  it  a 
substitute  for  its  own  work  rather  than  a  supple- 
ment to  it,  but  it  has  also  affected  the  pastor.  Many 
pastors  believe  that  they  cannot  conduct  a  revival 
without  outside  help.  So  when  they  add  their  lack 
of  faith  in  themselves  to  the  church's  lack  of  faith  in 
them  for  this  particular  work,  of  course  nothing  is 
done.  Many  a  pastor  justifies  his  lack  of  evangelistic 
efforts  on  the  ground  that  he  is  unfitted  tempera- 
mentally to  be  an  evangelist.  He  says  he  is  not  emo- 
tional nor  spectacular,  does  not  believe  in  high-pressure 
methods,  and  therefore  he  cannot  be  an  evangelistic 
preacher.  He  claims  to  be  a  cultural  preacher,  or  a  prac- 
tical preacher.  He  will  emphasize  religious  education 
and  practical  ethics.  Let  the  evangelist  do  the  soul- 
saving  and  he  will  build  up  the  converts  into  strong, 
consistent  Christian  characters.  So  he  says  there  is 
a  division  of  labor.  He  cannot  do  what  the  evangelist 
does,  nor  can  the  evangelist  do  what  he  does.  Each, 
therefore,  must  remain  in  his  respective  field  and  do 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     97 

the  thing  that  he  can  do  best.  That  sounds  reason- 
able, but  the  fallacy  in  it  is  that  educational  and  ethical, 
or  what  is  called  a  practical  cultural  preaching,  is  not 
good  evangelistic  preaching.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  that 
is  not  good,  or  the  best,  evangelistic  preaching  which 
is  not  intellectually  strong,  doctrinally  constructive, 
and  which  does  not  issue  in  ethical  conduct. 

A  type  of  preaching  that  is  good  enough  to  get  folks 
out  of  sin,  to  break  bad  habits,  to  give  new  incen- 
tives, to  establish  right  relations  between  man  and  God 
and  man  and  man  is  precisely  the  kind  of  preaching 
to  keep  saved  people  saved  and  to  operate  to  the  best 
advantage  in  advancing  the  kingdom  of  God.  One 
reason  that  there  are  so  many  lapses  from  highly  emo- 
tional revivals  is  that  the  preaching  was  neither  intel- 
lectual nor  ethical  enough  to  show  the  convert  both 
the  privileges  and  the  responsibilities  of  the  Christian 
life.  The  strongest  and  most  practical  kind  of  preach- 
ing is  best  adapted  to  evangelism,  yet  that  is  the 
kind  of  preaching  our  cultural  preacher  claims  for 
himself  while  still  declaring  that  he  cannot  be  an 
evangelist ! 

This  brings  us,  then,  to  the  second  effect  upon  the 
pastor.  Like  the  church,  he  comes  to  believe  there  is 
only  one  kind  of  a  revival,  and  that  is  the  high-pressure 
kind  which  the  professional  evangelist  conducts,  and 
for  that  kind  of  evangelism  the  cultured  pastor  feels 
he  has  no  aptitude,  so  he  attempts  no  evangelistic 
work  whatever.  The  quieter  form  of  direct  personal 
work  for  which  he  may  be  admirably  fitted  he  does  not 
do  at  all,  yet  in  many  ways  it  is  not  only  more  certain 
of  immediate  results  but  far  more  certain  of  perma- 


98  EVANGELISM 

nent  results  than  by  the  high-pressure  form;  but  that 
quiet  way  is  too  often  not  regarded  as  evangelism. 

Reconstruction 

But  the  pastor  often  is  confronted  with  practical 
difficulties  after  a  revival  has  been  conducted  in  his 
church  by  a  certain  type  of  evangelist.  This  one  deals 
almost  altogether  with  the  symbolism  of  the  Bible,  but 
interprets  it  in  the  most  literal  fashion ;  or  he  has  some 
fad,  such  as  holiness,  or  the  second  coming  of  Christ ; 
or  he  takes  a  hostile,  even  violent,  attitude  toward  the 
amusement  question.  He  often  attacks  wealth  or 
scholarship,  or  has  some  other  hobby  which  he  keeps 
constantly  before  the  people  for  several  weeks,  with 
the  result  that  sometimes  a  church  is  hopelessly  split 
after  the  meetings  are  over,  meetings  which  were  to 
unite  all  people,  and  the  pastor  has  a  work  of  recon- 
struction on  his  hands  which  is  both  delicate  and  diffi- 
cult to  carry  on.  He  must  rescue  the  Bible  from  fan- 
tastic interpretation;  he  must  rescue  Christian  experi- 
ence from  extravagance;  he  must  rescue  the  church 
from  high-pressure  emotional  methods;  he  must  win 
back  certain  people  who  left  the  church  because  of 
either  superficial  methods  or  extreme  doctrine ;  he  must 
pacify  some  who  have  become  hostile  over  money 
matters.  Now  while  he  is  doing  this  many  of  the 
devotees  of  the  evangelist  will  charge  him  with  trying 
to  undo  the  evangelist's  work,  because  he  is  jealous  of 
him,  or  knows  he  could  not  do  as  well  himself  and  is 
resolved  to  destroy  the  work  that  has  been  done.  As 
a  consequence  many  of  them  get  offended  and  leave 
the  church. 


NEED  OF  PASTORAL  EVANGELISM     99 

No  pastor  likes  to  look  forward  to  an  experience 
like  that.  Of  course  such  a  result  does  not  always, 
nor  even  often  follow,  but  it  does  follow  with  suffi- 
cient frequency  to  lead  the  pastor  to  draw  the  hasty,  un- 
fortunate conclusions  that  evangelists  are  all  alike,  their 
methods  all  alike,  that  he  will  have  nothing  of  either, 
and  therefore  he  will  put  forth  no  evangelistic  effort  at 
all.  Thus,  pastoral  evangelism  has  been  allowed  to 
fall  into  disuse.  Instead  of  stimulating  every  pastor 
to  be  his  own  evangelist,  or  to  be  evangelistic  and  to 
call  in  outside  help  only  when  he  is  tired  out,  he  omits 
evangelism  altogether.  That  is  too  common  to  be  com- 
fortable. Too  many  pastors  lack  evangelistic  passion, 
and  seem  to  think  that  if  they  help  in  a  big  union  meet- 
ing once  in  awhile,  all  their  evangelistic  responsibilities 
have  been  met.  Far  from  it.  The  big  union  meetings 
come  very  far  from  meeting  the  evangelistic  oppor- 
tunity of  the  individual  church  or  the  community.  If 
the  community  will  not  or  cannot  go  into  a  union 
campaign,  then  the  pastor  justifies  his  evangelistic  in- 
activity on  the  ground  that  he  had  no  opportunity. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS 

The  big  union  meetings  are  often  both  misleading 
and  disappointing  in  their  results.  It  is  true  they 
have  some  very  important  advantages  which  must  not 
be  overlooked. 

First.  They  gather  great  numbers  of  people  to- 
gether for  religious  purposes.  That  is  a  good  thing 
for  any  community. 

Second.  They  get  the  different  denominations  in  a 
given  community  into  cooperative  activity  in  which  they 
cease  their  jealousies  and  competition  among  them- 
selves and  unite  in  one  common  interest.  After  they 
have  worked  together  for  several  weeks  they  know  one 
another  better,  think  more  of  one  another,  and  agree 
to  cooperate  in  community  betterment  after  the  meet- 
ings are  over.  That  is  a  very  good  thing.  The  un- 
churched classes  think  more  of  them  when  they  are 
cooperative  than  when  they  are  competitive.  Church 
rivalries  are  like  church  quarrels — they  die  hard,  and 
do  much  mischief  while  they  live. 

Third.  They  offer  in  the  big  tent  or  tabernacle  a 
neutral  ground  to  which  people  from  the  outside  will 
come  who  would  not  go  to  any  church.  That  is  a 
very  important  thing  in  these  days.  Not  many  outside 
people  go  to  evangelistic  meetings  unless  they  are  held 
on  neutral  ground.  So  th^  tabernacle  has  an  advan- 
tage in  that  respect. 

100 


THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS  loi 

But  there  are  serious  disadvantages  which  must  not 
be  overlooked.  First,  the  tent  meeting  does  not  cul- 
tivate the  habit  of  churchgoing.  The  atmosphere  of 
the  church  is  not  in  the  tent.  Many  who  make  deci- 
sions for  Christ  on  neutral  ground,  do  not  afterward 
go  into  the  church,  and  after  a  longer  or  shorter  varied 
career,  they  lapse  into  the  old  life  again  and  never  be- 
come active  in  the  work  of  the  Kingdom.  They  do 
not  identify  the  tent  with  the  church.  Few  people  con- 
tinue in  the  Christian  life  who  are  converted  out  of  the 
church,  unless  they  become  members  of  the  church  and 
are  active  in  it  after  they  are  converted.  Second,  the 
crowds  are  usually  so  great  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  deal  with  individuals,  which  is  very  important  in 
evangelistic  work.  More  than  that,  perhaps  ninety 
per  cent  or  more  of  those  great  crowds  are  Christian 
people.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  get  a  building  which 
can  be  made  practical,  to  hold  all  the  church  members 
that  are  in  the  union  group.  Crowds  were  never  larger 
in  the  union  services  than  now,  and  perhaps  never  was 
there  so  large  a  percentage  of  Christians  among  them. 
The  big  crowd  does  not  mean  that  large  numbers  of 
unconverted  people  are  being  reached,  at  least  in  the 
meetings.  Third,  the  method  of  securing  decisions 
is  apt  to  be  unsatisfactory,  because  not  definite  enough. 
The  method  of  having  people  come  forward  is  very 
effective,  provided  something  very  definite  and  personal 
is  done  with  and  for  those  who  go  forward.  They 
should  be  dealt  with  personally  in  an  after  meeting, 
where  their  difiliculties  could  be  removed,  objections 
answered,  and  the  way  of  the  Christian  life  very  fully 
explained.     Then  some  action  on  their  part,  like  pray- 


I02  EVANGELISM 

ing  or  giving  a  testimony,  which  might  not  be  more 
than  a  declaration  of  intention,  could  be  had.  Even 
this  would  tend  to  fix  their  decision  more  firmly  than 
the  mere  going  forward  did.  In  the  big  meeting  too 
often  that  is  not  done  and  cannot  be  done.  Then, 
too,  going  forward  may  mean  little  more  than  going 
forward  and  shaking  hands  with  the  leader.  That 
does  not  go  deep  enough  to  constitute  a  real  serious 
Christian  decision.  Many  who  go  forward  in  a  big 
public  meeting  may  not  be  heard  of  again.  Perhaps 
they  were  strangers,  and  when  they  go  back  to  their 
distant  homes  they  may  never  record  the  decision  they 
made,  or  seemed  to  make,  in  the  tabernacle.  Nobody 
will  be  the  wiser.    The  follow-up  work  is  very  difficult. 

That  same  thing  is  true  in  the  card-signing  method. 
That  method  can  be  made  very  effective  when  properly 
done.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  shallow  criticism  made 
against  the  card-signing  and  hand-raising  methods.  If 
these  methods  are  used  superficially  or  insincerely,  of 
course  they  are  open  to  criticism;  but  going  forward 
to  the  altar  may  be  as  superficial  or  insincere,  or 
thoughtless,  or  hasty,  and  then  it  is  open  to  the  same 
criticism.  The  great  mistake  that  too  often  is  made 
in  all  these  methods  is  that  the  public  act  is  taken 
as  a  conversion  when  it  may  be  far  from  it.  At  best  it 
is  little  more  than  an  introduction  to  conversion.  It 
may  be  a  method  of  inquiry  just  to  find  out  how  to  be- 
come converted;  and  if  nothing  is  definitely  done  for 
those  who  thus  make  their  expression,  the  whole  matter 
will  end  there,  and  conversion  may  not  ensue. 

Too  much  is  expected  of  the  method  and  too  little 
of  what  the  method  stands  for  or  invites.    Many  peo- 


THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS  103 

pie  decide,  or  want  to  become  Christians,  and  come 
forward  to  find  out  how  to  become  Christians.  The 
important  thing  is  not  the  coming  forward,  but  the 
help  given  when  they  come. 

Simple  Decision  Cards 

Covenant  cards  or  decision  cards  are  often  too 
rigidly  drawn.  Many  who  might  be  won  are  not  yet 
prepared  to  make  so  definite  a  pledge,  and  so  they  will 
not  sign.  Others  who  do  sign,  sign  to  so  much  that 
nothing  more  is  thought  to  be  needed.  The  real  object 
of  the  use  of  the  card  in  both  instances  is  defeated; 
the  ''almost  persuaded"  are  not  reached,  and  the  ''fully 
persuaded"  are  not  helped.  The  decision  card  should 
be  very  simply  drawn.  Its  real  use  is  to  introduce  a 
personal  worker  to  a  seeker.  On  one  side  of  the  card 
a  simple  statement  like  the  following  could  be  made : 
'T  earnestly  desire  to  become  a  Christian  and  would 
welcome  any  help  that  may  be  given  me."  When  that 
card  is  signed,  any  personal  worker,  even  a  timid  one, 
has  an  introduction  to  that  person,  and  an  invitation 
to  talk  to  him  about  the  Christian  life.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  card  a  little  more  definite  statement  could 
be  made,  such  as,  "I  have  accepted  Christ  as  my  per- 
sonal Saviour,  and  by  his  grace  I  intend  to  lead  a 
Christian  life."  That  too  is  an  invitation  for  some 
one  to  explain  more  fully  the  privileges  and  responsi- 
biHties  of  the  Christian  life,  and  to  induce  the  person 
who  signed  the  card  to  become  identified  with  the 
church  at  once. 

It  is  the  personal  work  that  is  done  by  the  pastor  or 
some  other  competent  persons  that  is  of  vital  impor- 


I04  EVANGELISM 

tance  in  evangelistic  work.  Where  that  is  not  done 
no  method  will  be  productive  of  large  permanent  re- 
sults. It  is  the  lack  of  that  direct  personal  work  that 
is  one  of  the  great  weaknesses  of  the  big  union  meet- 
ings. The  crowds  are  too  great  to  be  handled  individ- 
ually. There  are  too  many  things  going  on  at  the 
meetings  to  keep  them  brief  and  make  successful  after 
meetings  possible.  Accordingly,  the  whole  work  is 
apt  to  be  more  superficial  than  if  a  like  amount  of 
effort  were  put  forth  in  a  group  of  individual  churches, 
each  doing  its  own  work  in  its  own  way,  a  way  which 
would  be  most  effective  on  its  own  field. 

Fourth.  The  recorded  results  of  such  meetings  are 
apt  to  be  very  misleading,  and  that  gives  an  oppor- 
tunity to  the  man  on  the  outside  to  discredit  the  whole 
thing  and  make  him  harder  to  reach  than  before.  It 
also  disappoints  many  of  the  cooperating  pastors  and 
churches,  and  makes  them  less  willing  to  go  into  a 
union  movement  on  a  large  scale  again. 

Among  those  who  go  forward  are  many  who  are 
already  Christians.  They  do  not  go  forward  to 
record  their  decision  to  become  Christians,  but 
for  other  reasons :  to  meet  the  evangelist,  to  report 
a  hopeful  case,  to  invite  the  evangelist  to  their  homes, 
to  encourage  some  timid  persons  to  go  forward  too, 
to  ask  for  some  personal  work  to  do,  to  report  names  of 
persons  whom  they  have  worked  with,  etc.  But  the 
whole  number  who  went  forward  are  reported  as  con- 
verts. That  is  the  way  the  public  understands  it.  ''On 
a  given  night  there  was  a  great  meeting.  After 
a  powerful  appeal  Evangelist  A.  gave  the  invitation, 
and  five  hundred  and  eighty-seven  went  forward  for 


THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS  105 

prayers."  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  three  hundred  and 
fifty  of  them  might  have  been  Christians  already.  It 
is  only  when  the  numbers  who  went  forward  are 
checked  up  by  the  numbers  who  join  the  uniting 
churches  that  the  public  sees  the  disparity.  Then  the 
integrity  of  the  whole  thing  is  brought  under  sus- 
picion. The  inaccuracy  of  the  reporter  does  not  settle 
the  matter.  The  after  impression  is  not  always  whole- 
some or  pleasant. 

The  misleading  element  is  more  evident  with  the 
card-signing  method  than  with  the  method  of  going 
forward.  Many  people  will  sign  a  card  who  would 
not  go  forward.  Few  people  see  them  sign  cards,  but 
everybody  sees  them  when  they  go  forward.  Card- 
signing  will  be  very  misleading  unless  carefully 
guarded,  and  it  is  not  often  carefully  guarded. 

It  is  perfectly  natural  for  one  who  is  conducting  a 
meeting  to  want  to  get  the  largest  possible  response 
to  his  appeal.  If  he  is  not  careful,  he  will  deceive 
himself  as  to  the  sincerity  of  his  motive.  Of  course 
if  he  wants  advertising,  and  if  his  next  engagement 
will  depend  on  the  success  of  this  one,  the  desire 
for  advertising  is  both  strong  and  subtle.  But  even 
when  the  whole  matter  is  as  far  removed  from  per- 
sonal interest  as  it  is  natural  to  get  it,  the  results  are 
apt  to  be  misleading.  Sometimes  the  wording  of  the 
card  is  such,  and  sometimes  the  invitation  to  sign  it  is 
put  in  such  form,  that  no  real  Christian  could  refrain 
from  signing  it.  Anyone  familiar  with  those  methods 
well  knows  how  generally  that  is  done.  It  hardly  could 
be  otherwise. 

Of  seven  hundred  cards  signed  four  or  five  hundred 


io6  EVANGELISM 

may  have  been  signed  by  Christians;  that  proportion 
is  none  too  high  in  many  cases.  But  the  seven  hun- 
dred are  reported  to  the  pubHc  as  seven  hundred  de- 
cisions for  Christ.  The  impression  that  the  pubHc  gets 
is  that  there  v^ere  seven  hundred  conversions.  Now, 
when  the  meetings  are  over  and  the  cards  distributed 
among  the  churches  according  to  the  preference  of  the 
signers,  then  the  disillusionment  comes.  Pastor  B.  has 
two  hundred  and  fifty  cards  turned  over  to  his  church. 
He  finds  that  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  have  been 
signed  by  his  best  members.  He  receives  into  his 
church  only  twenty-five  people.  The  public  will  be 
apt  to  say — and  it  would  be  natural  to  say  it,  judging 
from  the  published  reports  of  the  meetings — that  Pas- 
tor B.  had  two  hundred  and  fifty  converts  turned 
over  to  him  and  let  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  slip 
through  his  hands,  for  he  only  received  twenty-five 
into  the  church.  Or  it  might  be  declared  that  the 
church  was  so  cold,  or  so  poorly  organized,  or  so  some- 
thing else,  that  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  refused  to 
join  it.  If  it  is  explained  that  the  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  were  already  active  members  of  the  church, 
the  man  on  the  outside  will  ask,  "Why  then  did  they 
sign  decision  cards  and  allow  the  public  to  think  that 
they  were  new  converts?"  The  whole  thing  will  look 
insincere  to  him.  He  will  say  it  is  a  pious  way  of  stuff- 
ing the  ballot  box  which  would  be  strongly  condemned 
outside  of  the  church.  It  is  hard  for  the  outside  man 
to  believe  in  the  genuineness  or  sincerity  of  the  matter ; 
he  looks  upon  it  as  a  sort  of  pious  fraud,  and  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  it.  The  statistics  of  big  union  meet- 
ings are  bound  to  be  misleading  although  there  is  no 


THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS  107 

intention  to  be  dishonest  or  insincere.  If  the  church 
were  shut  up  to  this  one  form  of  evangelism,  which 
some  people  think  is  sufficient,  it  would  create  the  per- 
petual task  of  explaining  away  misunderstandings  and 
of  making  the  best  of  disappointments.  In  a  word, 
it  would  be  a  very  unsatisfactory  form  of  evangelism 
both  for  the  world  and  the  church. 

Fifth.  The  big  meetings  are  very  expensive,  and 
much  of  the  good  done  in  some  campaigns  is  offset  by 
misunderstanding  and  hard  feelings  which  grow  out 
of  the  financial  difficulties  that  follow  the  meetings. 
The  unfortunate  projection  of  financial  matters  to  the 
front  in  a  spiritual  work  leads  to  harsh  criticism  and 
bitter  feelings.  The  business  end  of  some  evangelistic 
campaigns  is  very  poorly  managed.  The  churches  com- 
plain because  they  have  to  pay  so  much,  and  the  pastors 
complain  because  the  results  are  so  meager,  and  the 
public  complains  because  the  work  did  not  seem  to  be 
genuine.  So  there  is  dissatisfaction  all  around.  The 
question  will  now  be  raised,  If  these  things  are  true 
even  in  exceptional  cases,  ought  big  union  meetings  to 
be  held  at  all  ?  Is  not  the  sum  total  effect  on  the  nega- 
tive side  rather  than  on  the  positive  side? 

Union  Meetings  Useful 

Big  union  meetings,  by  all  means,  ought  to  be  held. 
The  sum  total  effects  need  never  be  on  the  negative 
side.  There  is  both  need  and  room  for  just  such  meet- 
ings, and  whenever  the  conditions  warrant  it  they 
ought  to  be  held.  But  if  they  are  made  a  substitute  for 
pastoral  evangelism,  or  individual  church  evangelism, 
then  the  sum  total  effect  will  be  apt  to  be  on  the  nega- 


io8  EVANGELISM 

tive  side.  The  big  union  meeting  ought  to  be  the  cli- 
max of  a  great  many  unit  meetings.  When  all  of  the 
individual  churches  under  the  leadership  of  their  own 
pastors,  or  such  brother  pastors  as  might  be  called  in 
to  help  with  evangelistic  fervor,  are  interested,  a  union 
meeting  of  these  churches  will  be  almost  inevitable. 
Then  a  competent  evangelist  can  be  of  inestimable 
value.  There  is  a  form  of  union  meetings,  however, 
that  is  very  effective  without  the  aid  of  a  professional 
evangelist.  The  writer  has  had  part  in  several  such 
meetings.  A  given  group  of  churches  of  one  or  sev- 
eral denominations  will  meet  either  on  a  common  neu- 
tral ground,  as  in  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
auditorium,  town*  hall,  lyceum,  or  some  other  large 
public  building,  or  they  may  rotate  among  the  churches 
of  the  group.  However,  it  is  not  wise  to  change  the 
place  of  meeting,  if  it  can  be  avoided.  It  breaks  the 
continuity  of  effort,  and  it  helps  to  break  up  the  habit 
of  attendance.  It  will  take  a  night  or  two  to  get  used 
to  the  place,  and  that  introduces  the  element  of  inter- 
ruption. If  the  meetings  are  held  in  the  churches  of 
the  group  in  rotation,  too  often  the  members  of  each 
church  will  feel  responsible  only  for  the  meetings  held 
in  their  own  church,  and  that  prevents  that  community 
interest  that  is  cultivated  by  having  the  meetings  in 
one  place. 

In  this  type  of  union  meetings  the  cooperating  pas- 
tors are  their  own  evangelists.  They  all  attend  all  the 
meetings,  sit  together  in  the  pulpit,  or  at  least  two  of 
them  are  in  the  pulpit  each  night,  and  the  rest  are  scat- 
tered judiciously  among  the  congregation  as  personal 
workers.     They  preach  by  turns.     Sometimes  the  man 


THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS  109 

who  did  not  preach  will  conduct  the  after  meeting;  he 
may  even  make  the  appeal,  although  that  had  better  be 
done  by  the  preacher,  at  least  in  its  first  form.  But 
the  person  who  watches  the  effect  of  the  sermon  on  the 
congregation,  and  is  not  under  the  strain  of  the  mes- 
sage himself,  may  often  see  more  clearly  what  ought 
to  be  done  than  the  one  who  preaches.  There  ought  to 
be  most  complete  understanding  and  the  heartiest  co- 
operation between  the  men  who  conduct  the  meeting. 
The  meeting  ought  to  be  carefully  planned  before- 
hand, and  as  far  as  possible  every  emergency  antici- 
pated, so  that  there  would  be  no  surprises,  disappoint- 
ments, nor  awkward  pauses  in  the  meeting  when  no- 
body seemed  to  know  what  to  do.  That  confusion  can 
be  avoided  when  good  team  work  is  done.  When 
one  of  the  team  seems  to  have  exhausted  his  resources, 
the  other  may  take  hold  with  something  new,  or  one 
of  the  preachers  in  the  congregation  may  take  advan- 
tage of  a  pause,  to  offer  prayer,  start  a  hymn,  give  a 
testimony,  or  exhortation,  and  thus  save  the  meeting 
from  an  awkward  situation.  After  an  evening  or  two 
all  the  cooperating  pastors  would  be  known  by  face 
and  voice,  and  that  would  prevent  any  of  the  people 
thinking  that  outsiders  were  trying  to  take  the  meet- 
ing out  of  the  hands  of  the  leaders.  All  the  pastors 
would  be  a  unit  in  their  effort  and  understanding.  To 
make  that  possible  they  ought  to  have  a  council  to- 
gether for  prayer,  and  plan  before  and  after  each 
meeting.  That  kind  of  a  union  service  is  usually  very 
fruitful  in  permanent  results.  But  if  it  were  deemed 
wise,  the  union  service  might  be  under  the  leadership 
of  some  competent  evangelist,  whose  staff  of  coworkers 


no  EVANGELISM 

would  be  the  cooperating  pastors.  There  would  be 
few  drawbacks  or  misunderstandings  resulting  from 
such  union  meetings.  In  this  case  the  union  meeting 
would  not  be  a  substitute  for,  but  a  supplement  to, 
pastoral  evangelism. 

Another  question  might  be  asked  here :  Is  there  any 
real  place  for  the  professional  evangelist?  Does  the 
church  need  him  any  more?  In  the  interest  of  pastoral 
evangelism,  ought  not  professional  evangelism  and  the 
professional  evangelist  to  be  discouraged?  Certain 
types  of  evangelists  ought  to  be  discouraged — there  is 
no  doubt  about  that;  but  certain  other  types  ought  to 
be  encouraged.  The  church  needs  not  fewer  evan- 
gelists but  more  and  better  evangelists. 

Conference  Evangelists 

The  type  of  men  that  are  sometimes  set  apart  as 
Conference  evangelists  ought  to  be  discouraged.  Men 
are  sometimes  given  a  nominal  appointment,  and  they 
are  designated  as  Conference  evangelists,  either  be- 
cause of  some  disability  that  renders  them  unfit  for 
pastoral  service  or  because  churches  do  not  want  them. 
These  are  exactly  the  men  who  ought  not  to  be  ap- 
pointed, even  nominally,  as  Conference  evangelists. 
The  office  of  Conference  evangelist  ought  to  be  made 
as  important  as  any  office  in  the  Conference.  It  would 
not  be  a  bad  thing  for  every  district  to  have  its  official 
evangelist  selected  from  among  the  most  successful 
evangelistic  pastors  in  the  Conference,  and  be  paid  by 
the  district  a  salary  equal  to  any  other  minister's  salary 
on  the  district,  and  let  him  be  at  the  service  of  the 
churches  on  the  district  under  the  direction  of  the  dis- 


THE  BIG  UNION  MEETINGS  in 

trict  superintendents  and  pastors,  or  at  least  in  hearty 
cooperation  with  them.  Very  much  important  work 
could  be  done  by  such  an  arrangement,  but  even  then 
his  work  must  not  displace  pastoral  evangelism.  This 
would  in  no  way  render  the  professional  evangelist 
useless.  Professional  evangelists  ought  to  be  trained 
by  the  church  just  as  its  ministers  are.  Every  theo- 
logical seminary  ought  to  have  a  department  of  evan- 
gelism. The  evangelist  should  take  the  full  course  of  the 
seminary  just  as  the  pastor  does,  but  he  could  specialize 
on  evangelism.  He  would  then  have  the  pastors'  view- 
point and  cooperation  would  be  much  easier  between 
pastor  and  evangelist.  They  would  have  a  better  com- 
mon ground  than  some  do  to-day.  Then  the  evangelists 
would  be  able  to  preach  and  interpret  the  Bible  as  well 
as  the  pastors.  That  would  make  their  work  far  more 
constructive  than  it  is. 

Training  Evangelists 

If  there  were  provision  for  the  training  of  evangel- 
ists by  the  church,  many  people,  both  men  and  women, 
who  have  peculiar  gifts  for  that  work  would  go  into 
it,  but  now,  as  they  do  not  feel  qualified  to  be  pastors, 
they  either  go  into  evangelism  untrained,  or  else  they 
do  not  go  into  distinctive  Christian  work  at  all.  Some 
men  who  do  not  want  to  take  time  to  train  for  the  min- 
istry will  go  into  evangelism,  because  they  think  it  takes 
less  training  and  less  ability. 

An  evangelist  ought  to  be  a  specialist.  He  ought  to 
know  as  much  as  the  pastor  does,  plus.  It  is  true  that 
formerly  some  men  who  could  not  get  through  a  medi- 
cal college  would  take  up  some  particular  study  in 


112  EVANGELISM 

medicine  and  call  themselves  specialists.  They  could 
be  more  fitly  called  quacks.  The  best  specialists  add 
their  specialty  to  a  very  thorough,  all-round  training. 
So  ought  an  evangelist.  No  person  ought  to  go  into 
evangelism  as  a  profession  who  is  not  as  thoroughly 
trained  as  the  pastor.  I  mention  this  because  some  one 
who  reads  this  book  may  have  considered  almost  any 
kind  of  seminary  training  to  be  sufficient  for  the  work 
of  an  evangelist.  Far  from  it.  He  ought  to  have  the 
best  training  that  can  be  had,  for  he  is  to  be  a  specialist 
in  the  most  fundamental  thing  in  the  ministry,  namely, 
soul-winning. 

The  church  is  confronted  with  two  duties  in  the  mat- 
ter of  the  professional  evangelist :  it  should  train  evan- 
gelists and  have  many  more  of  them,  and  it  should  not 
employ  nor  encourage  untrained  evangelists.  By  using 
only  those  who  are  best  trained  it  might  have  fewer  in 
service,  but  they  would  be  better.  Evangelists  are 
to  be  pastors'  helpers  and  not  pastors'  substitutes. 

Whatever  or  whoever  takes  the  place  of  pastoral 
evangelism  or  makes  it  unnecessary  works  harm  to  the 
church.  The  pastor  is  first  of  all  an  evangelist.  He 
may  have  a  way  of  his  own  in  getting  people  saved. 
He  need  not  conform  to  any  of  the  conventional  stand- 
ards, nor  employ  any  of  the  conventional  methods, 
but  he  is  to  get  folks  saved;  and  when  he  does,  by 
whatever  method  he  employs,  he  is  essentially  an 
evangelist.  He  is  saved  to  serve,  and  he  serves  to 
save.  There  may  be  as  many  methods  as  men,  but 
the  main  thing  is  to  get  men  and  women  rightly  related 
to  God  and  man ;  that  is,  to  make  them  Christians  who 
will  get  the  will  of  God  done  in  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  PERIODIC  REVIVAL 

Pastoral  evangelism  may  and  perhaps  ought  to  take 
two  forms.  The  first  form  may  be  called  the  periodic, 
or  occasional  revival.  The  time-honored  month  for 
that  revival  was  January,  beginning  with  the  week  of 
prayer.  That  has  not  always  been  the  best  month,  al- 
though the  beginning  of  the  new  year  was  something 
to  be  said  in  its  favor  even  if  the  reason  were  only  a 
sentimental  one.  But  very  often  the  weather  in  Janu- 
ary for  a  large  part  of  the  country  is  disagreeable.  A 
better  month  would  be  November,  climaxing  with 
Thanksgiving  Day.  Better  still  is  March,  which  being 
in  Lent,  is  less  given  over  to  pleasure  and  more  given 
over  to  religion  than  any  other  month  in  the  year. 
That  month  could  climax  on  Easter  Day,  and  Passion 
Week  would  give  a  splendid  opportunity  for  very  effec- 
tive appeals.  It  is  a  time  when  the  cross  and  sacri- 
ficial service  easily  can  be  made  prominent;  they  are 
always  powerful  appeals,  but  especially  at  that  time 
of  year.  Spring  Conferences  often  interfere,  but  under 
the  area  system  the  month  preceding  Easter  ought  to 
be  left  free  for  evangelistic  work. 

But  now  it  may  be  asked,  If  the  old  methods  no 
longer  work,  is  it  worth  while  to  have  a  month's  re- 
vival ?  Can  it  be  made  successful  ?  To  both  questions 
the  answer  is  "Yes."     The  periodic  revival  is  logical, 

113 


114  EVANGELISM 

natural,  and,  if  the  necessary  conditions  are  met,  in- 
evitable and  successful.  In  nature  it  corresponds  to 
the  harvest,  but  it  is  no  more  of  a  detached  or 
unrelated  thing  than  the  harvest.  The  harvest 
is  not  an  accident.  It  didn't  just  happen.  The 
harvest  is  the  climax  of  a  process.  Nature's 
method  is  a  process  with  a  climax.  That  is  God's 
method,  and  it  is  as  true  in  grace  as  it  is  in  nature.  No 
man  can  reap  a  harvest  that  was  not  sown.  Neither 
can  a  church  have  a  revival  by  setting  apart  a  certain 
time,  throwing  the  doors  open,  and  saying,  ''The  re- 
vival is  now  on ;  come  and  be  saved."  When  there  was 
less  to  do  and  fewer  places  to  go,  that  method  did 
work,  but  it  does  not  work  to-day.  The  revival  to- 
day is  the  climax  in  one  month  of  diligent  and  faithful 
work  and  prayer  through  the  other  eleven  months  of 
the  year.  The  periodic  revival  is  a  method  employed 
by  God  in  the  religious  history  of  his  people.  The 
Old  Testament  is  a  book  of  revivals.  The  prophets 
were  national  revivalists.  They  called  the  nation  to 
repentance  and  to  works  of  righteousness,  as  our  fa- 
thers did  their  communities.  The  New  Testament  is 
a  book  of  revivals.  John  the  Baptist  introduced  a 
revival  after  a  long  period  of  religious  dearth.  Jesus 
was  a  revivalist,  and  his  method  was  to  set  up  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  the  world.  His  messages  were  for  the 
most  part  Kingdom  messages.  Jesus  talked  a  great 
deal  about  the  kingdom  of  God.  Evangelism  to  him 
was  getting  the  Kingdom  established.  He  did  not  put 
much  emphasis  on  a  man  getting  off  to  heaven  some 
day,  but  he  did  put  emphasis  on  doing  the  will  of  God 
to-day.     If  the  life  is  right  to-day,  to-morrow  need 


THE  PERIODIC  REVIVAL  115 

cause  no  anxiety.  That  person  is  sure  of  heaven  to- 
morrow who  lives  the  heavenly  life  in  the  will  of  God 
to-day.  The  model  prayer  which  he  gave  his  disciples 
in  Luke  eleven  is  a  Kingdom  prayer.  The  Golden 
Rule  is  a  Kingdom  rule.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
is  a  Kingdom  message.  The  general  commission  in 
Matthew  twenty-eight  is  a  Kingdom  commission. 
Most  of  his  parables  are  parables  to  illustrate  the 
Kingdom.  The  parable  of  the  mustard  seed  illustrated 
the  law  of  expansion  of  the  Kingdom,  the  leaven  the 
pervasive  power  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  apostles  were  evangelists,  and  none  more  so 
than  the  missionary  evangelist  Paul.  The  history  of 
the  Christian  Church  is  a  history  of  revivals  and  evan- 
gelists. In  the  nature  of  things,  there  is  room  and 
need  for  the  occasional  revival.  It  may  not  be  wise 
to  attempt  to  hold  one  every  year  in  every  place,  par- 
ticularly in  small  communities.  But  in  big  cities,  where 
there  are  always  large  numbers  of  unsaved  people  and 
a  moving  population,  it  would  be  wise  to  hold  one 
every  year  but  varying  the  method  so  as  not  to  get  into 
ruts  or  become  commonplace. 

The  occasional  revival  has  some  advantages  that 
ought  to  be  noted : 

1.  It  breaks  up  monotony  by  introducing  the  unu- 
sual. It  has  the  element  of  novelty  and  has  a  freshness 
that  appeals  to  many  people  to  whom  the  regular  serv- 
ices of  worship  do  not  appeal. 

2.  The  revival  idea  gets  in  the  air  and  makes  it 
easy  even  for  timid  people  to  talk  about  religion;  and 
because  it  is  unusual  and  many  people  are  talking  about 
it  the  subject  is  always  introduced.    It  is  very  easy  to 


ii6  EVANGELISM 

say,  "Have  you  been  to  the  meetings  yet?"  and  then 
extend  an  invitation  to  go  next  time.  So  conversation 
can  easily  and  naturally  lead  to  personal  work. 

3.  It  opens  up  a  variety  of  avenues  of  service  for 
young  people.  They  can  be  gotten  to  sing  in  the 
choir,  to  usher,  to  distribute  cards  of  invitation  in  the 
neighborhood,  to  go  out  in  teams  of  two  each  to  call 
on  other  young  people  and  invite  them  to  church,  or, 
better  still,  call  for  them  and  take  them  to  church,  sit 
with  them  and  help  them  in  any  way  they  can  to  de- 
cide for  Christ.  Men  can  organize  to  do  personal 
work  among  men,  and  they  will  do  it  for  a  short  period, 
but  would  not  think  of  keeping  it  up  through  the 
year. 

4.  Various  types  of  afternoon  meetings  can  be  held 
for  women  and  children  who  cannot  well  attend  the 
evening  meetings.  Mothers'  meetings  are  of  great 
value  in  evangelistic  work.  The  prayers  offered  in 
mothers'  meetings  have  been  of  incalulable  value  in 
revival  periods.  Shop  meetings  for  men  also  can  be 
held,  often  with  the  heartiest  cooperation  of  both  the 
employers  and  the  employed  if  the  meetings  do  not 
last  too  long  and  if  they  do  not  interfere  with  the 
regular  work  of  the  shop.  Shop  meetings  are  of  great 
importance  if  properly  conducted  and  are  productive 
of  gratifying  results.  It  requires  great  skill  to  conduct 
such  meetings,  but  let  no  one  be  discouraged  on  that 
account.  Common  sense  is  the  most  important  factor 
in  their  successful  conduct.  They  should  rarely  exceed 
fifteen  minutes  in  length.  The  problem  is  to  pack  those 
fifteen  minuets  with  interest  and  importance.  The  mes- 
sage must  be  brief,  bright,  and  to  the  point.     The 


THE  PERIODIC  REVIVAL  117 

singing  also  should  be  bright  and  cheery,  and  the  hymns 
familiar,  so  the  men  could  all  join  in  the  singing,  es- 
pecially in  the  choruses.  Debatable  questions  should 
not  be  discussed  at  the  shop  meetings,  nor  should  any- 
thing be  raised  that  would  tend  to  alienate  the  em- 
ployer and  the  employed.  Industrial  matters  had  better 
be  let  alone  ( i )  because  there  is  not  time  in  a  five  or 
six-mijiute  speech  to  deal  satisfactorily  with  such  com- 
plicated problems;  and  (2)  the  aim  of  the  shop  meet- 
ings is  to  bring  to  the  men  a  simple,  direct,  strong  gos- 
pel message,  to  hold  up  Jesus  Christ  as  every  man's 
friend  and  Saviour.  No  appeal  to  class  spirit  should 
be  mentioned,  and  nothing  that  would  stir  up  strife  or 
create  a  suspicion  that  the  preacher  was  partisan.  He 
is  the  friend  of  all  men  and  is  interested  in  the  better- 
ment of  all.  Good  shop  meetings  greatly  elevate 
morale  and  tend  to  bring  capital  and  labor  into  more 
wholesome  and  brotherly  cooperation.  If  the  meetings 
are  judiciously  conducted  for  two  or  three  weeks,  the 
preacher  often  is  invited  to  continue  them  at  least  once 
a  week  indefinitely.  When  that  is  the  case  the  preacher 
has  achieved  a  great  victory  in  that  he  has  established 
a  sympathtic  bond  between  his  church  and  the  work- 
ing man.  He  will  often  have  them  in  his  congregation 
on  Sunday  night,  so  that  out  of  his  periodic  revival 
he  has  created  an  opportunity  for  continous  evan- 
gelism. 

5.  The  deck  is  all  cleared  for  action;  in  other  words, 
all  social  and  recreational  activities  are  suspended  for 
the  period  of  the  meetings,  and  the  church  concen- 
trates on  one  thing — the  winning  of  men  and  women 
to  God.    The  preaching  is  more  direct  and  appealing; 


ii8  EVANGELISM 

in  fact,  the  best  preaching  of  the  year  should  be  done 
during  the  revival.  A  preacher  ought  always  to  try 
to  better  his  best;  but  if  ever  he  is  to  do  his  best,  it  is 
when  he  is  preaching  a  soul-saving  gospel,  when  he  is 
presenting  Jesus  Christ  as  Saviour  and  urging  the  im- 
mediate acceptance  of  him  by  men.  The  whole  church 
is  alert  and  expectant;  prayer  groups  get  together 
every  day  for  the  preacher,  the  meetings,  and  the  un- 
converted. Personal  workers  will  be  quietly  winning 
souls  between  meetings,  and  that  always  is  a  guarantee 
of  good  meetings. 

Altogether  it  is  very  wholesome  to  both  pastor  and 
people  to  hold  the  periodic  revival.  In  those  meetings 
it  is  better,  if  possible,  for  the  pastor  to  be  his  own 
evangelist.  Occasionally  it  is  wise  to  call  in  some  effi- 
cient evangelist  or  another  pastor  to  help  him,  but  the 
pastor  is  to  have  charge  of  the  meetings  and  direct 
all  the  activities.  For  no  reason  should  be  abdicate  his 
leadership. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  PERIODIC  REVIVAL 

How  is  it  to  be  conducted?  No  one  can  give  a 
definite  answer  to  that  question.  The  conditions  differ 
so  widely  that  what  would  be  wise  in  one  place  might 
not  be  in  another.  Indeed,  in  the  same  place  on  differ- 
ent nights  in  the  same  week  the  conditions  will  differ 
so  widely  that  the  method  of  the  night  before  will  not 
work.  The  method  should  be  always  so  elastic  that 
any  emergency  could  be  met  without  any  embarrass- 
ment.   Only  general  principles  can  be  suggested. 

I.  As  to  the  preaching.  This  subject  was  discussed 
in  a  previous  chapter,  but  only  in  a  general  way.  Here 
a  few  specific  hints  may  be  given  that  will  be  helpful. 
The  revival  sermon  should  be  brief,  say  twenty-five  or 
thirty  minutes  long.  It  should  be  strong,  clear,  direct, 
and  deal  with  fundamental  things.  No  careless,  ill- 
prepared,  or  trivial  preaching  ought  to  be  tolerated  in 
evangelistic  meetings.  Sin,  repentance,  righteousness, 
duty,  service,  the  love  of  God,  the  Saviourhood  of 
Christ,  the  greatness  of  the  Christian  life  are  fitting 
subjects  for  the  revival  meetings.  In  this  day  it  is 
not  so  much  instruction,  that  most  people  need,  the 
important  thing  is  to  create  in  them  a  motive  strong  to 
make  them  act  on  what  they  already  know. 

The  sermons  should  be  intellectually  strong  but  also 
119 


I20  EVANGELISM 

emotionally  warm.  Many  a  man's  reason  is  convinced 
that  he  ought  to  be  a  Christian  who  does  not  yield  be- 
cause his  emotions  are  not  warm  enough  to  move  his 
will  to  decision.  The  main  object  of  the  revival  is  to 
lead  to  immediate  action.  The  sermon  is  to  create  mo- 
tive power.  Men  must  be  made  to  see  that  they  owe  it 
to  themselves,  to  their-  families,  to  the  world,  and  to 
God  to  live  the  best  lives  that  it  is  possible  for  them  to 
live,  and  that  cannot  be  done  as  long  as  they  love  and 
practice  sin.  Christ  came  to  deliver  them  from  the 
power  and  defilement  of  sin,  and  he  is  to  be  presented 
for  their  immediate  acceptance.  Every  reason,  motive, 
affection,  and  argument  is  on  the  side  of  living  a  life 
wholly  in  the  will  of  God.  Character  studies  make 
good  revival  sermons — the  stories  of  Abraham,  Joseph, 
Moses,  Gideon,  David,  Elijah,  Jeremiah,  Nehemiah, 
Amos,  Paul,  and  others,  on  the  positive  side.  But 
men  whose  careers  are  warnings  are  also  important  as 
studies,  for  they  show  the  subtilty  and  danger  of  sin ; 
for  example,  Samson,  Saul,  Achan,  Ahab,  Judas,  Pi- 
late, and  others.  The  following  are  suggestive  passages 
for  texts :  Isa.  5.  4;  6.  1-8;  53.  5.  The  Psalms  are  also 
helpful;  for  example,  i,  15,  24,  51,  y:^,  103,  130.  In 
the  New  Testament  the  following  are  useful:  Matt. 

4.  17.    Mark  i.  17.    Luke  9.  57-62;  Chapters  15,  16, 
and  19.  10.  John  i.  11,  12;  3.  3-5;  16.   i  John  i.  8-10; 

5.  II,  12.    Acts  26.  18.    Rom.  5.  i;  Chapters  7,  8.  i, 

2,  31-39. 

It  is  often  wise  to  take  large  sections,  even  whole 
chapters,  for  texts  in  revival  meetings.  The  preacher 
should  settle  on  the  type  of  preaching  that  he  is  going 
to  employ  long  before  the  meetings  begin,  so  that  he  is 


CONDUCT  OF  PERIODIC  REVIVAL    121 

so  familiar  with  his  subject  that  he  will  be  able  to  do 
the  many  things  that  must  be  done  during  the  meet- 
ings without  seriously  affecting  his  preaching.  His 
sermons  should  follow  a  cumulative  order,  reaching  a 
climax  near  the  close  of  the  meetings,  when  the  strong 
appeals  are  to  be  made  for  immediate  decision.  They 
should  be  brief,  so  as  to  leave  ample  time  in  the  after 
meeting  to  do  a  variety  of  the  things  that  need  to  be 
done  to  bring  about  intelligent  decisions.  The  trouble 
with  many  revivals  is  that  the  people  are  preached 
almost  to  death.  They  are  wearied  before  the  after 
meeting  comes,  and  if  decisions  do  not  follow  the  first 
invitation,  there  is  nothing  to  do  but  dismiss  the  meet- 
ing or  there  will  be  a  small  number  out  the  next  night. 
In  the  revival  the  meeting  is  more  important  than  the 
message.  A  short  sermon  with  a  long  after  meeting 
in  which  there  is  time  for  plenty  of  action  is  far  better 
than  a  long  sermon,  no  matter  how  good  it  is,  and  an 
after  meeting  so  short  that  nothing  worth  while  can  be 
done  with  the  message.  There  should  be  ample  time  in 
the  after  meeting  for  song,  prayer,  testimony,  and 
several  forms  of  invitation  if  need  be  without  wearying 
the  people.  Therefore  the  sermon  is  to  be  a  packed, 
powerful,  brief  message  which  will  lead  to  action,  but 
which  will  allow  ample  time  for  deliberate  and  intelli- 
gent action. 

2.  The  preparation  for  the  meeting.  It  is  some- 
times said  that  real  revivals  "come  down,"  or  "break 
out,"  and  that  they  should  not  be  "worked  up."  Re- 
vivals, however,  which  seem  to  "come  down"  or  "break 
out"  are  not  accidents  or  oddities.  They  have  been 
worked  up,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  by  a   few 


122  EVANGELISM 

deeply  spiritual  men  and  women,  possibly  some  of  the 
old  or  sick,  who  long  for  a  work  of  grace  in  the  church 
and  pray  daily  for  it  and  the  pastor.  The  revival 
came  down  by  the  drawing  power  of  prayer,  or  it 
broke  out  by  the  expulsive  power  of  prayer.  No 
great  revival  comes  without  a  great  deal  of  earnest, 
powerful,  and  expectant  prayer.  So  a  large  group  of 
cottage  meetings  should  be  held  for  several  weeks  be- 
fore the  revival  begins.  Very  often  these  cottage 
prayer  meetings  precipitate  the  revival  a  week  or  two 
before  the  time  planned ;  then,  indeed,  it  comes  down, 
or  breaks  out.  Many  times,  however,  cottage  prayer 
meetings  accomplish  very  little  because  they  are  not 
focused.  It  does  not  do  much  immediate  or  specific 
good  for  a  group  of  people  to  get  together  and  pray 
in  a  general  way  for  God's  blessing  upon  a  series  of 
meetings  to  be  held  at  a  given  time.  Of  course  all 
praying  does  some  good;  if  to  no  one  else,  certainly 
the  one  who  offers  the  prayer  is  benefited.  But  prayer 
meetings  which  are  to  usher  in  a  revival  must  be  very 
definite,  and  must  for  the  most  part  be  followed  up  by 
personal  effort  of  the  one  who  prays ;  he  himself  must 
cooperate  with  God  in  answering  the  prayer.;  It  will 
be  a  long  time  before  this  world  will  be  saved  if  men 
only  pray  to  God  to  save  it.  Prayer*  and  work  must 
go  together.  About  the  only  effective  prayers,  without 
work,  that  are  offered  for  conversions  are  the  prayers 
of  children,  old  people,  and  sick  people.  They  cannot 
ordinarily  follow  up  their  prayers  with  work.  For 
the  conversion  of  men  God  works  through  men,  and 
rarely  in  any  other  way.  So  there  is  a  work  that  even 
precedes  the  cottage  prayer  meetings.     To  make  the 


CONDUCT  OF  PERIODIC  REVIVAL    123 

cottage  meetings  most  effective  those  who  pledge  them- 
selves to  attend  the  meetings  and  take  part  in  them 
should  do  something  more. 

Prayer  Lists  of  Unconverted       ^ ' 

Everyone  interested  in  a  revival  knows  one  or  more 
persons  whom  he  or  she  would  like  to  have  brought  to 
Christ.  All  the  people,  then,  who  support  the  cottage 
preparatory  meetings  should  make  prayer  lists  of  those 
they  want  to  see  saved  and  pray  for  them  daily,  in 
private,  by  name,  and  in  the  cottage  meetings,  where 
the  names  need  not  be  mentioned.  That  would  mean 
that  all  the  prayers  offered  would  be  prayers  with  a 
definite  object.  More  than  that,  the  persons  who  pray 
for  their  friends  in  the  cottage  meetings  should  do  all 
they  could  by  personal  effort  to  answer  their  own 
prayers  between  meetings.  They  could  then  not  only 
pray  in  the  meetings  but  also  report  what  success  they 
had  in  personal  effort  during  the  week.  When  any 
considerable  number  of  any  church  membership  under 
the  direction  of  its  pastor  will  do  that  kind  of  prepara- 
tory work  a  revival  will  be  inevitable.  Many  deci- 
sions will  have  been  made  before  the  revival  formally 
opens,  and  these  decisions  can  be  declared  early  in  the 
meetings,  and  success  will  attend  them  from  the  start. 
Very  much  evangelistic  interest  comes  to  nothing  be- 
cause it  does  not  issue  in  definite  action.  A  revival 
must  be  planned  through,  prayed  down,  and  worked 
up.  Good  planning,  earnest  praying,  and  faithful 
working  will  bring  a  revival.  A  revival  costs  much, 
but  it  is  worth  while.  Not  only  has  a  good  revival 
given  a  church  a  new  lease  of  life  but  also  has  added 


124  EVANGELISM 

hope,  faith,  and  power  to  many  a  discouraged  minis- 
ter's preaching. 

3.  The  more  specific  preparation  for  the  revival 
meetings  themselves.  From  among  the  people,  both 
men  and  women,  who  attended  the  cottage  meetings 
the  pastor  should  select  the  wisest  and  most  successful 
to  be  his  personal  workers  in  the  revival.  It  is  not 
wise  to  call  for  volunteers  for  this  delicate  and  diffi- 
cult work,  for  very  often  the  most  tactless  and  least 
trusted  people  in  the  church  will  respond.  They  may 
be  enthusiasts  or  hobbyists,  or  those  queer,  good  peo- 
ple whose  queerness  offsets  their  goodness.  All  such 
people  will  by  one  tactless  venture  often  undo  the 
careful  work  of  a  whole  week,  and  sometimes  make 
the  whole  revival  effort  fail.  Personal  workers  should 
be  selected  by  the  pastor  with  the  greatest  care,  and 
should  be  so  organized  and  their  work  so  planned  that 
there  would  be  no  opportunity  for  the  tactless  and  dis- 
trusted or  ignorant  people  to  do  any  harm.  The  whole 
field  of  personal  work  should  be  so  covered  that  there 
would  be  no  occasion,  especially  in  the  meetings,  for 
anyone  to  do  personal  work,  except  those  chosen  by 
the  pastor.  Personal  workers  should  not  only  be  good 
but  wise.  Foolish  goodness  is  half -badness.  Tact- 
less personal  workers  are  obstructionists.  I  put  great 
emphasis  upon  this,  for  too  great  care  cannot  be  ex- 
ercised in  the  choice  of  personal  workers. 

But  even  the  most  efficient  personal  workers  will  be 
able  to  accomplish  but  little  if  they  work  in  a  hap- 
hazard way.  The  work  for  each  night  must  be  planned 
so  that  each  worker  will  know  where  to  be  and  what  to 
do.    Of  course  all  plans  must  be  elastic  enough  to  pro- 


CONDUCT  OF  PERIODIC  REVIVAL    125 

vide  for  the  unexpected,  but  good  judgment  and  tact 
will  always  provide  for  emergencies.  The  workers 
should  meet  with  the  pastor  each  night  before  the  meet- 
ing and  plan  to  cooperate  in  the  closest  way  with  him. 
The  workers  should  know  in  advance  what  the  pastor 
is  going  to  do,  so  that  any  sign  he  may  give  them  will 
be  understood  and  acted  upon  at  once,  and  done  so 
easily  and  naturally  that  the  plan  will  not  show  to  the 
congregation.  Some  of  the  personal  workers  can  do 
no  better  than  to  call  for  the  unconverted  whom  they 
have  previously  seen,  take  them  to  church,  sit  with 
them,  and  help  them  in  a  very  judicious  way  to  make 
their  decision,  by  going  forward  with  them,  standing 
with  them,  encouraging  them  to  sign  a  card,  or  to 
make  any  other  record  of  their  decision.  But  the 
worker  must  not  nag,  nor  urge,  nor  make  the  person 
conspicuous  or  embarrassed.  Other  personal  workers 
will  have  charge  of  a  small  section  of  pews,  and  sit  in 
such  a  position  that  they  can  see  the  faces  of  all  that 
are  in  their  section  without  turning  around,  or  in  any 
other  way  attracting  the  attention  of  others,  much  less 
of  disturbing  the  pastor.  The  church  ought  to  be 
divided  up  into  sections  so  that  one  person  could  easily 
have  charge  of  a  section  and  do  all  that  needed  to  be 
done  quickly  and  quietly. 

These  workers  are  invaluable  if  decision  cards  are 
used.  The  workers  are  to  keep  the  cards  out  of  sight 
until  the  pastor  has  made  his  appeal,  read  and  ex- 
plained very  clearly  what  the  card  means  and  what 
signing  it  involves.  Then  the  workers  distribute  the 
cards  giving  one  to  everybody,  so  that  nobody  will  be 
made  conspicuous.     Those  who  are  already  Christians 


126  EVANGELISM 

need  not  sign  the  cards,  but  return  them  to  the  worker 
when  he  collects  them. 

When  the  cards  are  in  the  people's  hands,  after  their 
use  has  been  explained  by  the  pastor,  then  the  pastor  or 
some  one  on  whom  he  may  call  should  offer  a 
brief  prayer  for  God's  blessing  upon  the  decisions 
about  to  be  recorded.  Another  brief  prayer  should 
follow  the  signing  of  them.  Cards  should  not  be  dis- 
tributed in  the  pews  or  in  the  book  racks  before  the  dis- 
tribution is  ordered  by  the  pastor,  nor  should  they  be 
left  lying  around  after  they  are  used.  Personal 
workers  should  use  great  care  in  this  respect.  All 
signed  cards  should  be  turned  in  to  the  pastor  at  the 
close  of  the  meeting;  then  he  and  his  council  should 
divide  up  the  names  among  themselves,  or  give  them 
to  other  personal  workers,  and  those  who  signed  the 
cards  should  be  called  upon  next  day,  or  before  the 
next  meeting,  and  should  be  given  such  help  as  might 
be  needed  and  urged  to  attend  the  next  meeting. 

After  Meeting  with  Seekers  and  Workers 

Signing  cards,  standing,  raising  the  hand,  or  going 
forward  are  only  beginnings.  A  definite  and  complete 
work  should  at  once  follow.  The  night  following  the 
decision  at  the  close  of  the  service  an  after  meeting 
should  be  called  for  the  workers  and  all  those  who 
made  decisions.  The  pastor  should  have  charge  of 
this  meeting,  and  give  additional  instruction  to  what 
has  already  been  given  the  night  before.  This  would 
be  somewhat  of  a  private  meeting,  at  which  the  new 
converts  might  first  learn  to  take  part  in  prayer  and 
testimony  before  doing  so  in  the  more  public  meet- 


CONDUCT  OF  PERIODIC  REVIVAL    127 

ing.  Many  a  person  has  come  to  a  definite  and  joyous 
experience  in  offering  his  first  prayer  or  in  giving  his 
first  testimony.  That  which  was  more  or  less  general 
and  indefinite  in  his  decision  becomes  definite  and 
settled  when  it  is  put  into  action.  Hence  the  importance 
of  having  new  converts,  as  soon  as  possible,  translate 
their  religious  intention  into  religious  experience 
through  action. 

When  the  appeal  is  for  people  to  come  forward  it 
should  be  pretty  clearly  understood  that  there  are  peo- 
ple there  who  will  come  forward.  The  failure  to  get 
a  response  after  two  or  three  nights  has  a  very  bad 
effect  upon  both  preacher  and  people.  It  destroys  ex- 
pectation. After  a  while  when  the  invitation  is  given, 
nobody  expects  a  response,  and  the  whole  thing  be- 
comes more  or  less  farcical.  Expectant  faith  is  es- 
sential to  a  successful  revival.  Some  preachers  and 
evangelists  give  the  invitation  every  night  from  the 
first  night  to  the  last,  often  with  meager  results.  The 
best  evangelists  and  evangelistic  pastors  defer  the  in- 
vitation till  near  the  close  of  the  meetings  when  they 
know  that  many  are  ready  to  make  their  decision  when 
the  opportunity  is  given.    That  is  much  the  better  way. 

Preparation  for  the  Invitation 

It  is  wise  before  an  invitation  to  come  forward  is 
given  that  it  be  known,  through  personal  work  before 
the  meeting,  that  several  persons  are  ready  to  go  for- 
ward when  the  opportunity  is  presented.  The  pastor 
then  will  be  certain  of  a  response,  and  the  faith  of  the 
church  will  be  greatly  stimulated  by  such  a  ready  re- 
sponse on  the  first  invitation.     Some  may  here  object 


128  EVANGELISM 

and  say :  "Such  action  shows  too  much  of  man's  plan- 
ning and  too  little  dependence  on  the  Holy  Spirit.  If 
there  had  been  more  dependence  on  the  Spirit  and 
less  leaning  to  human  understanding  the  results  would 
have  been  far  greater."  But  wise  and  tactful  plan- 
ning, accompanied,  as  all  human  plans  ought  to  be, 
with  prayer,  is  certainly  cooperating  with  the  Holy 
Spirit.  If  that  objection  were  carried  to  its  logical  con- 
clusion, there  would  be  no  meetings  held  at  all,  for  the 
meetings  themselves  are  humanly  planned.  Before 
Jesus  fed  the  multitude  he  had  them  organized.  Be- 
fore he  called  Lazarus  from  the  dead  he  required  the 
human  preparation.  God's  plans  and  man's  plans  are 
to  harmonize ;  neither  is  to  work  without  the  other.  It 
is  cooperative  work.  God  saves  the  world  through 
human  instrumentality.  In  the  meeting  it  is  always 
wise  to  have  what  you  set  out  to  have.  If  you  set  out 
to  have  an  altar  service,  have  it.  If  seekers  will  not 
come  forward,  invite  intercessors  to  represent  them — 
parents,  Sunday  school  teachers,  personal  workers,  of- 
ficial members,  recent  converts.  There  always  will  be 
enough  people  to  come  with  definite  purpose  to  make 
the  altar  service  one  of  great  profit. 

If  an  invitation  in  one  form  will  not  bring  a  re- 
sponse, try  another.  When  intercessors  are  at  the 
altar  ask  for  some  expression  of  the  unsaved  in  the 
congregation,  such  as  rising,  lifting  the  hand,  or  some 
other  visible  sign  so  as  to  give  definiteness  to  the 
prayers  of  those  at  the  altar.  Many  sons  or  daughters 
will  yield  when  they  see  father  or  mother  at  the  altar 
interceding  for  them.  That  same  thing  will  be  true 
when  Sunday  school  pupils  see  their  teachers  pleading 


CONDUCT  OF  PERIODIC  REVIVAL    129 

for  their  conversion ;  many  will  give  themselves  to  God 
who  perhaps  would  not  be  moved  by  any  other  appeal. 
It  makes  a  good  ground  for  an  additional  appeal  by  the 
pastor. 

Another  form  of  after  meeting  is  to  have  an  inquiry 
room  in  which  the  meeting  can  be  held  after  the  regu- 
lar meeting  has  been  dismissed.  To  this  meeting  only 
two  classes  of  people  should  be  invited — those  who 
want  help  and  those  who  are  willing  to  help.  That  will 
eliminate  the  impatient,  who  think  that  all  meetings 
are  too  long;  the  indifferent,  who  are  more  or  less  of 
an  embarrassment  to  serious  people;  and  the  curious, 
who  are  nuisances.  That  meeting  will  be  made  up  of 
people  who  mean  business  and  who  are  not  at  all  con- 
cerned about  its  length  as  long  as  something  worth 
while  is  accomplished.  If  seekers  do  not  attend,  it  can 
take  the  form  of  a  council  meeting  for  prayer  and  re- 
ports on  personal  work  and  some  further  direction  on 
the  plans  for  the  next  meeting.  If  seekers  do  come,  they 
can  be  dealt  with  more  directly  and  helpfully  than  in 
the  more  public  meeting.  Very  often  people  will  come 
and  take  a  stand  in  a  small,  semiprivate  meeting  who  are 
too  timid  to  take  a  stand  in  the  general  meeting.  The 
inquiry  meeting  should  be  very  informal.  It  should 
be  a  sort  of  conversational  group  where  the  seeker 
could  ask  questions  and  any  of  the  workers  be  free 
to  answer  as  well  as  the  pastor.  It  is  often  helpful  to 
have  testimonies  from  the  older  Christians  as  to  how 
they  met  their  first  difficulties  and  what  a  constant  in- 
spiration and  help  their  religion  has  been  to  them.  All 
this  helps  the  new  convert  or  the  one  about  to  decide 
for  Christ  to  know  that  religion  is  more  than  a  happy 


I30  EVANGELISM 

feeling  that  might  not  stand  the  rough  tests  of  life. 
Those  who  give  themselves  to  Christ  can  be  asked  to 
pray  or  speak,  and  thus  more  firmly  establish  them- 
selves in  the  faith  than  if  they  had  no  such  oppor- 
tunity. It  is  a  sort  of  family  gathering  where  they 
can  talk  things  over  in  a  frank  and  confidential  way. 
The  inquiry  meeting  wisely  conducted  is  very  effec- 
tive in  evangelistic  work. 

Divided  After  Meeting 

Another  profitable  way  of  conducting  an  after  meet- 
ing is  to  divide  the  congregation,  having  the  men  go 
into  a  separate  room  and  leaving  the  women  in  the  audi- 
torium. As  a  rule,  the  pastor  should  take  charge  of 
the  men's  meeting.  The  women's  meeting  can  often 
be  turned  into  a  prayer  service  for  the  success  of  the 
other  meeting.  The  men's  meeting  needs  a  strong  and 
frank  leadership.  It  will  be  observed  that  men  as  a 
rule  will  give  public  expression  to  their  decision  in  a 
men's  meeting  far  more  readily  than  in  a  mixed  meet- 
ing. If  the  pastor  is  a  real  man's  man,  he  can  do  almost 
anything  he  wants  to  do  with  his  men  when  he  has  them 
by  themselves.  Men  like  to  be  talked  to  with  great 
candor  and  directness,  and  the  pastor  has  a  great  op- 
portunity to  do  a  splendid  soul-winning  service  with 
his  men  alone.  Women,  on  the  other  hand,  will  more 
readily  make  a  public  decision  in  a  mixed  meeting  than 
when  they  are  by  themselves.  Women  seem  to  be  more 
sensitive  to  the  criticism  of  women  than  they  are  to  the 
criticism  of  men,  while  men  are  far  more  sensitive  to 
the    criticism    of    women    than    they    are    to    crit- 


CONDUCT  OF  PERIODIC  REVIVAL    131 

icism  by  their  own  sex.  Indeed,  most  men  care  very 
little  about  male  criticism.  It  may  be  that  men  fear 
that  yielding  to  a  religious  appeal  seems  more  emo- 
tional than  rational,  and,  therefore,  weak;  and  in 
the  presence  of  women  they  do  not  like  to  show  any 
sign  of  what  they  may  think  is  weakness.  But  what- 
ever the  cause,  the  pastor  should  capitalize  the  pecu- 
liarity in  the  interest  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
writer  always  has  had  more  success  in  bringing  men 
to  a  decision  in  a  men's  meeting  than  in  a  mixed  meet- 
ing, and  he  has  been  more  successful  in  getting  deci- 
sions from  women  in  a  mixed  meeting  than  in  a 
women's  meeting.  In  the  course  of  a  long  experience 
he  has  found  great  value,  especially  in  dealing  with 
men  in  the  divided  after  meeting. 

Still  another  form  of  after  meeting  can  be  held. 
After  the  sermon,  during  the  singing  of  a  hymn,  all 
who  so  desire  may  go,  leaving  only  those  who  are 
deeply  interested,  either  for  themselves  or  others,  in 
the  after  meeting.  That  removes  occasion  for  com- 
plaint by  those  not  deeply  interested  that  the  meetings 
are  tiresome.  If  any  such  person  remains  after  there 
is  offered  an  opportunity  to  go,  he  has  no  one  to  blame 
but  himself. 

It  is  well  to  vary  the  after  meeting.  Ruts  are  fatal 
to  good  meetings.  The  unexpected  always  adds  an 
element  of  interest  and  keeps  the  mind  alert,  thus  sus- 
taining and  saving  the  meeting  from  the  deadening 
power  of  monotony.  It  is  sometimes  wise  when  the 
sermon  has  been  unusually  impressive  and  the  emo- 
tional tension  is  strong,  to  close  the  sermon  with  the 
benediction  and  let  the  people  go  out  silently  occupied 


132  EVANGELISM 

with  their  own  thoughts  and  convictions,  wondering 
why  the  preacher  did  not  give  an  invitation. 

Very  often  when  the  emotional  tension  is  greatest 
there  will  be  the  least  action  of  the  will;  the  people 
are  too  much  engrossed  with  their  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings to  act.  If  an  appeal  is  given  at  that  time  it  rarely 
results  in  any  response.  The  minister  should  not  be 
discouraged,  for  the  next  night  he  may  have  an  unu- 
sually good  response  to  an  appeal  based  on  a  much  less 
searching  sermon. 

At  this  point  it  is  easy  to  make  a  grave  mistake, 
namely,  to  conclude  that  it  is  the  less  powerful  ser- 
mons that  bring  results  and  therefore  pay  little  atten- 
tion to  the  sermon,  believing  that  almost  anything  will 
do  by  way  of  preaching.  One  will  have  to  try  that 
method  but  a  little  while  to  discover  that  he  will  have 
no  results  that  will  be  worth  mentioning.  The  best 
action  follows  the  best  preaching,  though  not  always 
immediately.  The  time  for  action  must  be  carefully 
studied  by  the  preacher  and  the  invitation  given  when 
there  is  a  reasonable  expectation  that  there  will  be  a 
response. 


CHAPTER  V 

CONTINUOUS  EVANGELISM 

The  periodic  revival  discussed  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ter depends  very  largely  for  its  success  upon  what 
might  be  called  a  continuous  revival;  that  is,  a  sus- 
tained evangelistic  program  running  through  the  year. 
The  periodic  revival,  then,  in  one  month  would  be  the 
climax  of  the  other  eleven  months  of  more  quiet,  but 
none  the  less  persistent,  effort.  The  objection  that 
some  ministers  raise  to  the  periodic  revival  is  that  they 
have  no  aptitude  for  that  form  of  work.  They  do 
not  think  that  they  are  emotional  enough  to  conduct 
a  successful  revival.  That  form  of  work  does  not 
appeal  to  them.  Some  of  them,  thinking  that  there  is 
no  successful  evangelistic  work  other  than  the  periodic 
revival,  do  no  evangelistic  work  at  all.  That  is  a  great 
mistake.  Some  of  the  most  successful  evangelistic 
pastors  seldom  have  a  periodic  revival,  but  they  re- 
ceive converts  into  the  church  every  month  in  the  year, 
and  because  it  is  quietly  done  in  the  regular  work  of 
the  church  nobody  thinks  of  it  as  a  revival,  nor  is  the 
pastor  considered  an  evangelistic  pastor.  It  is  better 
for  the  converts  and  better  for  the  church  to  have 
twenty  people  join  the  church  each  month  of  the  year, 
than  to  have  two  hundred  and  forty  come  in  at  once 
who  were  brought  to  Christ  under  the  high-pressure 
method  of  one  month.    They  could  be  better  cared  for 

133 


134  EVANGELISM 

and  more  easily  be  built  into  the  life  of  the  church. 
Of  course  it  would  not  make  as  good  advertising  as 
the  quicker  method,  but  it  would  be  far  better  for  the 
church,  for  it  would  keep  it  expectant  and  awake  to 
every  opportunity  to  win  people  to  Christ.  It  would 
also  greatly  help  the  preacher,  for  it  would  assure  him 
that  his  regular  work  was  evangelistically  effective. 
His  preaching,  therefore,  would  be  more  direct  and 
vital. 

Evangelistic  Policy 

But  the  continuous  revival  is  no  more  of  an  accident 
than  the  periodic  one  is.  Neither  of  them  just  happens. 
They  are  caused ;  the  laws  of  their  success  are  just  as 
determinable  as  are  the  laws  of  a  successful  harvest  or 
prosperous  business.  If  the  church  is  to  have  a  con- 
tinuous revival,  it  must  plan  for  it;  that  is,  it  must 
have  an  evangelistic  policy.  It  must  get  the  soul-win- 
ning habit.  One  of  the  advantages  of  the  continuous 
revival  is  that  everybody  can  be  engaged  in  it  all  the 
time.  It  is  not  confined  to  any  one  time  or  method; 
each  person  engaged  in  it  can  be  doing  his  work  in  his 
own  way.  Not  many  people  have  the  ability  to  conduct 
a  revival  meeting,  but  everybody  has  some  influence 
with  somebody  else,  and  that  influence  can  be  capital- 
ized for  Christ. 

One  person  may  specialize  in  getting  people  to  come 
to  the  church  in  order  that  they  may  be  brought  under 
the  power  of  the  gospel.  Another  may  do  a  great 
deal  of  good  work  by  writing  tactful,  sympathetic  let- 
ters. The  value  of  judicious  letter-writing  cannot  be 
overestimated.    A  letter  has  certain  advantages  over  a 


CONTINUOUS  EVANGELISM  135 

conversation.  A  letter  cannot  be  interrupted,  nor  can 
the  subject  be  changed ;  it  has  the  floor  till  its  message 
is  delivered.  No  matter  how  often  the  letter  is  read  it 
always  says  the  same  thing  in  the  same  way.  A  con- 
versation may  be  accidental  as  the  parties  meet  casu- 
ally, and  so  it  may  be  neither  wise  nor  timely.  But  a 
letter  is  intentional.  The  writer  says  what  he  means  to 
say.  It  is  deliberate,  carefully  thought  out,  so  that  the 
person  who  receives  it  knows  that  the  writer  has  been 
thinking  about  him  and  therefore  must  have  an  interest 
in  him — a  fact  which  in  itself  goes  a  long  way  toward 
winning  a  favorable  reception  for  it.  A  conversation 
may  be  forgotten,  but  a  letter  can  be  kept,  and  more 
often  than  not  will  be  kept.  A  conversation  may  be 
turned  into  an  argument  and  its  very  end  thus  defeated, 
but  not  so  with  a  letter ;  there  is  no  one  to  argue  with, 
and  usually  before  the  reader  has  time  to  answer  it, 
any  irritation  that  may  have  been  aroused  at  the  first 
reading  will  be  allayed.  Very  likely  that  letter  will 
later  be  found  among  the  reader's  keepsakes. 

Very  few  tactful  and  sympathetic  letters  in  the  in- 
terest of  other  people's  souls  are  either  destroyed  or 
discourteously  answered,  especially  if  the  writer  is  con- 
sistent in  his  interest  in  the  person  to  whom  he  writes 
and  if  his  own  character  warrants  such  an  evangelistic 
effort.  Such  letters  are  answered  with  great  courtesy 
and  appreciation,  and  often  lead  to  a  correspondence 
or  to  interviews  the  outcome  of  which  may  be  the  con- 
version of  the  whole  family  of  the  person  to  whom  the 
letter  was  written. 

If  the  periodic  revival  is  on,  letter-writing  is  not  so 
effective,  for  the  reason  that  the  person  receiving  it 


136  EVANGELISM 

may  think  that  the  writer  is  more  interested  in  the 
success  of  the  meeting  than  he  is  in  the  salvation  of  his 
soul.  But  when  no  special  meetings  are  on  and  the 
church  is  just  doing  its  normal  work,  then  for  a  man  to 
get  a  letter  from  some  one  interested  in  his  soul  means 
a  great  deal  to  him,  and  is  more  apt  to  be  effective. 
The  genuineness  of  the  writer's  interest  at  that  time 
is  far  more  apparent  than  if  everybody  were  doing 
something  unusual  for  a  short  time.  The  continuous 
revival  gives  a  good  opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of 
the  habit  of  helpful  letter-writing. 

Others  still  may  interview  men  at  their  offices  briefly 
and  to  the  point  on  the  matter  of  God's  business  and 
with  just  as  much  frankness  and  persistence  as  they  do 
on  the  matter  of  man's  business.  That  is  a  great  art. 
Happy  is  the  man  who  can  do  it  well.  Young  people 
can  do  effective  team  work  with  other  young  people. 
Every  person  and  organization  in  the  church  can  be 
utiHzed  in  the  continuous  revival,  but  none  of  the  work 
should  be  done  in  a  haphazard  way ;  everything  should 
be  carefully  planned  and  skillfully  executed.  In  no 
place  is  blundering  so  fatal  as  in  evangelistic  work.  The 
pastor  must  frequently  check  up  on  it,  and  often  be  in 
council  with  his  workers,  so  that  he  may  know  how  the 
work  is  being  carried  forward.  Frequent  reports  from 
individuals  and  organizations  is  a  good  way  to  get 
work  done  and  to  get  it  intelligently  and  effectively 
done.  Having  to  report  is  fatal  to  idlers.  If  no  re- 
ports are  called  for,  part  of  the  work  will  be  badly  done 
by  those  who  do  not  know  how  to  do  it  and  part  of  it 
will  be  left  undone  by  those  well  meaning  people  who 
are  always  going  to  do  something  but  never  get  any 


CONTINUOUS  EVANGELISM  137 

farther  than  their  good  resolutions.  Reports  are 
fundamental  to  getting  work  done.  Of  course  in  all 
this  work  the  pastor  must  be  the  leader.  It  will  come 
with  ill  grace  for  him  to  require  reports  of  others  if 
he  has  not  something  to  report  himself. 

Long  Pastorates 

This  kind  of  evangelism  cannot  best  be  done  in  short 
pastorates.  It  takes  time  to  win  the  confidence  of  the 
community  and  lay  those  lines  of  siege  that  are  so 
effective  in  long  pastorates.  The  pastor  must  become 
a  helpful  factor  in  all  the  interests  of  community  life — 
indeed,  in  a  way  he  must  become  the  conscience  of  the 
community  before  he  will  be  most  effective  in  contin- 
uous evangelism.  Hard-headed  business  men  will  want 
to  know  what  he  stands  for  in  all  the  affairs  of  the 
community  before  they  will  give  him  audience  to  talk 
to  them  privately  on  the  matters  of  their  souls.  These 
men  may  be  good  citizens  though  they  may  not  be 
Christians,  and  they  want  to  know  whether  the  pastor 
is  as  good  a  citizen  as  he  is  a  Christian.  If  the  pastor 
has  made  good  on  the  claims  of  men,  they  will  listen 
to  him  on  the  claims  of  God;  indeed,  if  he  has  not 
made  good  on  the  claims  of  men,  he  has  little  right 
to  press  on  others  the  claims  of  God. 

The  periodic  revival  can  be  gotten  up  in  a  few 
months  after  the  pastor  gets  on  a  new  field,  and  if  he 
is  a  successful  conductor  of  public  meetings  he  may 
have  a  successful  revival,  for  in  such  a  case  it  will  not 
matter  very  much  whether  he  is  well  known  or  not; 
much  will  depend  on  how  well  be  can  conduct  the  meet- 
ings.   But  to  carry  on  successfully  a  quiet  campaign  of 


138  EVANGELISM 

personal  work  throughout  the  year  in  the  church  and 
out  of  it,  he  must  not  only  be  ,welUaiow»-but  thor- 
oughly trusted.    The  goodness  of  his  character  and  the 
soundness  of  his  judgment  must  be  above  suspicions 
Continuous  evangelism  cannot  be  done  well  where  a 

/  pastor  takes  a  church  only  as  an  expedient,  with  no 
intention  of  seriously  settling  down  to  solve  the  re- 
ligious problems  of  his  community.  The  restlessness 
of  both  pastor  and  people  is  detrimental  to  good  evan- 
gelistic work  of  any  kind.  It  requires  greater  tact, 
skill,  and  consecration  to  conduct  a  long,  quiet  cam- 
paign, which  is  a  sustained  hunt  for  souls,  than  it  does 
to  work  up  and  carry  through  a  few  weeks  of  high- 
pressure  meetings.  In  the  continuous  revival  the 
stimulus  of  the  unusual  is  lacking,  and  there  is  no  such 

\  high  level  of  enthusiasm  as  there  is  in  the  other  kind 
of  revival,  but  in  the  long  pastorates  the  continuous 
revival  is  far  more  fruitful  in  permanent  results. 

Training  Personal  Workers 

Another  thing  that  the  continuous  revival  presup- 
/j  poses  is  the  training  of  personal  workers.  This  is  diffi- 
cult work,  and  it  must  be  done  with  great  care  and 
skill.  It  is  also  discouraging  work,  for  as  soon  as  one 
band  of  workers  is  trained  many  of  the  band  will  move 
away  and  the  work  will  all  have  to  be  done  over  again ; 
but,  of  course,  there  will  be  this  compensation  in  it: 
trained  workers  will  thus  be  scattered  among  other 
churches,  and  they  may  become  the  trainers  of  still 
other  bands,  the  result  being  that  the  Kingdom's  work 
will  be  better  done. 

As  personal  workers  must  be  chosen  with  great  care, 


CONTINUOUS  EVANGELISM  139 

the  draft  system  is  better  than  the  volunteering  system, 
for,  as  previously  stated,  those  who  volunteer  are  often 
the  very  persons  who  ought  not  to  do  that  work  at  all. 
They  do  not  sense  the  seriousness  of  the  work,  nor  do 
they  regard  special  preparation  as  at  all  necessary  for 
it. 

The  pastor  may  have  to  begin  with  two  or  three 
who  will  quietly  work  with  him  or  under  his  direc- 
tion. Then  others  as  they  are  found  and  tested  may 
be  added.  But  these  personal  workers  are  not  to  take 
the  pastor's  place  in  evangelism.  They  are  to  use  all 
their  skill  and  wisdom  in  a  great  variety  of  ways,  but 
always  under  the  leadership  of  the  pastor.  They  are 
to  be  his  council.  He  should  train  them  in  the  art  of 
soul-winning  and  supervise  their  work  until  they  be- 
come experts.  Then  when  he  leaves,  this  group  of 
trained  workers  will  be  an  invaluable  staff  for  his  suc- 
cessor. They  will  keep  the  spiritual  life  of  the  church 
at  a  high  level,  and  will  enable  a  new  pastor  to  do 
fundamental  work  from  the  beginning.  These  per- 
sonal workers  also  can  be  the  friends  and  helpers  of 
all  new  converts  who  come  into  the  church,  and  to 
strangers  who  come  by  letter  from  other  churches.  In 
a  church  where  there  are  frequent  conversions  through 
the  year  almost  everybody  will  feel  at  home.  They  can 
also  help  in  other  forms  of  church  work,  such  as  teach- 
ing in  the  Sunday  school  and  giving  spiritual  leader- 
ship to  young  people's  work. 

All  the  interests  of  the  church  are  best  served  when 
its  main  business,  the  winning  of  souls,  is  kept  to  the 
front.  Happy  is  the  church  that  has  in  its  member- 
ship a  great  number  of  people — young  and  old,  men 


I40  EVANGELISM 

and  women — who  are  successful  soul-winners.  In 
very  many  cases,  where  continuous  evangelism  is  car- 
ried through  the  year,  a  revival  will  break  out  which 
will  absorb  all  the  interest  and  attention  of  the 
church  for  several  weeks;  and  a  pastor  who  has  been 
through  one  revival  which  comes  as  the  climax  of  his 
steady  evangelism  will  feel  at  home  in  the  periodic  re- 
vival ever  afterward,  and,  indeed,  may  become  an  ex- 
pert in  conducting  such  meetings. 

Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  pastoral  evangelism, 
and  when  the  pastor  feels  that  there  is  no  conventional 
type  of  evangelism  to  which  he  must  conform,  but  that 
any  method  which  gets  people  to  God  is  good  evan- 
gelism, his  own  ministry  not  only  will  be  a  successful 
one,  but  the  church  committed  to  his  care  will  be  a 
prosperous  and  happy  church.  He  ought  to  employ 
every  means  that  he  can  command  to  advance  the 
kingdom  of  God,  keeping  always  in  mind  that  he  is 
called  and  commissioned  by  Jesus  Christ  to  be  a  soul- 
winner.  He  is  to  help  to  make  disciples  of  all  the  na- 
tions under  the  leadership  of  his  Divine  Master. 


PART  III 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL  EVANGELISM 


.      CHAPTER  I 

OPPORTUNITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY 

The  Sunday  school  is  the  most  hopeful  and  fruitful 
field  for  evangelism  that  the  church  has  to-day.  Sun- 
day school  evangelism  is  very  largely  a  work  of  con- 
servation, the  object  of  which  is  to  prevent  the  young 
people  of  the  church  from  going  into  sin.  If  the 
Sunday  school  clearly  sees  its  opportunity  and  faith- 
fully does  its  work,  the  church  will  have  little  to  fear 
about  the  wastage  of  its  young  life.  The  Sunday 
school  has  the  young  people  of  the  church  from  the 
Cradle  Roll  to  the  Adult  Bible  Class ;  that  is,  from  in- 
fancy up  to  middle  life  and  after.  If  it  is  alive  to  its 
opportunity  and  has  an  intelligent  evangelistic  policy, 
it  will  make  the  age  period  covered  by  the  Primary 
and  Junior  Departments  a  period  of  careful  prepara- 
tion, so  that  when  the  ''teen"  age — which  is  the  age  of 
highest  religious  susceptibility — is  reached,  there  will  be 
little  difficulty  in  winning  almost  every  boy  and  girl 
in  the  school  to  Christ.  They  would  be  prepared  to 
make  a  definite  and  intelligent  decision  for  Christ  and 
would  expect  to  do  so  if  they  had  the  opportunity.  It 
is  stated  that  about  sixty  per  cent  of  the  pupils  go  out 
of  the  Sunday  school  without  becoming  Christians. 
This  is  because  most  Sunday  schools  have  not  a  definite 
evangelistic  policy.  No  well-managed  factory  would 
waste  three  fifths  of  its  raw  material  for  want  of  a 

143 


144  EVANGELISM 

good  business  policy,  yet  that  is  about  what  the  Sun- 
day schools  are  doing. 

The  evangelistic  responsibility  of  the  Sunday  school 
does  not  rest  with  any  one  person  but  with  many  per- 
sons. Here  it  is  easy  to  pass  the  responsibility  along. 
The  pastor  may  say  that  evangelism  in  the  Sunday 
school  is  a  matter  for  the  superintendent  to  look  after, 
that  the  school  is  his  church  and  he  ought  to  be  re- 
sponsible for  its  evangelism.  The  superintendent  may 
say  that  he  does  not  come  into  close  personal  relation 
with  the  pupils,  but  the  teachers  do,  and  as  evangelism 
is  a  personal  matter  the  responsibility  rests  with  the 
teacher.  The  teacher  may  say  that  if  the  parents  did 
their  duty  as  parents  in  the  religious  training  of  their 
children  there  would  be  no  need  of  Sunday  school 
evangelism  at  all,  therefore  the  responsibility  rests  with 
the  parents.  The  parents  may  say,  *'That  is  what  we 
pay  our  minister  to  do;  if  he  fails  to  do  it,  the  fault  is 
his,  not  ours."  And  so  the  vicious  circle  moves  round 
and  round,  each  one  passing  the  responsibility  along  to 
some  one  else,  w^hile  the  children  are  deprived  of  their 
rights.  This  passing  along  of  responsibility  may  not 
be  consciously  done,  but  each  of  the  parties  takes  for 
granted  that  some  one  else  is  taking  care  of  the  situa- 
tion, the  result  being  that  the  work  does  not  get  done 
at  all. 

Pastor's  Responsibility 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  persons  named  are  re- 
sponsible, each  in  his  own  way  and  to  the  extent  of  his 
ability  and  opportunity.  The  pastor  has  a  responsibility 
because  he  has  an  opportunity,  and  a  very  great  one 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     145 

too.  The  Sunday  school  is  a  part,  and  a  very  important 
part,  of  his  church,  and  nothing  will  excuse  him  for 
neglecting  that  part  of  his  evangelistic  field.  Many 
pastors  plead  a  lack  of  time  and  strength  for  Sunday 
school  work.  But  that  excuse  is  no  more  valid  than  if 
a  business  man  should  say  that  the  pressure  of  his  busi- 
ness is  so  great  that  he  must  neglect  his  family.  If  that 
is  so,  he  has  no  right  to  have  a  family.  If  the  pastor, 
as  a  rule,  has  no  time  for  his  Sunday  school,  he  does 
not  deserve  one.  No  preacher  needs  to  feel  compli- 
mented on  his  fine  preaching  or  on  his  large  floating 
congregation  if  the  salvation  of  his  own  Sunday  school 
children  is  neglected.  If  he  does  not  think  it  worth 
while  to  evangelize  the  young  life  which  is  put  into  his 
hands  and  is  more  responsive  to  his  appeal  than  other 
people  with  whom  he  deals,  there  is  little  hope  that 
he  will  ever  be  a  successful  pastor  evangelist.  He  had 
far  better  let  other  people  do  a  great  deal  of  the  work 
about  the  church  that  saps  his  strength  and  give  more 
of  his  time  to  the  Sunday  school,  where  it  will  count 
for  the  most. 

The  Sunday  evening  service  is  no  longer  the  evan- 
gelistic opportunity  that  it  used  to  be,  for  the  reason 
that  most  of  the  young  people  after  they  attend  the 
Sunday  school  and  the  young  people's  service  do  not 
go  to  the  evening  preaching  service.  One  of  the  best 
ways  to  get  the  young  people  to  attend  the  evening 
church  service  is  for  the  pastor  to  attend  their  service 
and  show  such  a  friendly  interest  in  them  that  they 
will  feel  it  is  their  duty  and  privilege  to  attend  his 
service.  Young  people  are  loyal  to  any  one  who  is 
loyal  to  them.    If  he  is  regularly  at  the  Sunday  school, 


146  EVANGELISM 

he  will  find  a  large  number  of  the  older  Sunday  school 
pupils  at  the  evening  service. 

The  pastor  ought  not  to  teach  a  class  if  he  can  help 
it,  for  that  shuts  him  up  to  a  small  part  of  the  school. 
Sometimes  it  is  necessary  for  him  to  teach  a  class  to 
hold  it  to  the  school,  especially  if  it  is  a  class  of  young 
men.  As  a  rule,  he  ought  to  move  freely  about  through 
the  school,  so  that  all  the  pupils  will  know  him,  and 
he  will  have  the  opportunity  of  saying  a  word  of  cheer 
in  all  the  departments  as  well  as  to  individual  pupils. 
It  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  be  in  the  school  every 
Sunday.  A  pastor,  like  a  physician,  is  always  subject 
to  emergency  calls,  but  barring  these  he  ought  to  be 
in  his  Sunday  school  whenever  it  is  possible. 

The  pastor  cannot  expect  that  his  influence  will  be 
great  in  the  school  if  he  attends  it  only  on  special  days, 
such  as  Rally  Day,  Decision  Day,  Christmas,  Easter, 
and  Children's  Day.  If  he  attends  only  at  such  times, 
he  will  be  considered  by  the  school  only  as  one  of  the 
visitors,  for  on  those  occasions  there  will  be  many 
visitors.  The  pastor  should  never  be  thought  of  as  a 
visitor.  He  should  be  thought  of  by  the  pupils  as  their 
personal  friend,  and  as  intimately  related  to  the  school 
as  the  superintendent  and  teachers  are. 

The  Pastor  and  the  Boy  Problem 

The  pastor  can  do  much  toward  getting  the  men  of 
the  church  to  attend  the  Sunday  school.  When  that 
is  done  the  boy  problem  will  be  solved  to  a  great  extent. 
Boys  will  not  get  to  the  place  where  they  feel  they  are 
too  old  for  the  Sunday  school  if  a  large  number  of  men 
regularly  attend.    The  Sunday  school  no  longer  will  be 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     147 

thought  of  as  a  child's  institution,  but  it  will  be  con- 
sidered a  real  school  of  religion,  where  none  are  too 
young  to  be  admitted  and  none  too  old  to  remain. 

The  pastor  must  realize  that  the  Sunday  school  of 
to-day  is  his  church  of  to-morrow.  If  he  is  to  have 
an  evangelistic  church  to-morrow,  he  must  have  an 
evangelistic  school  to-day.  He  is  to  set  the  example  to 
superintendent,  teacher,  and  parent  in  the  work  of 
evangelism. 

As  the  pastor  moves  about  in  the  school  he  can  easily 
find  out  what  is  being  taught,  whether  the  work  the 
teachers  are  doing  both  in  teaching  and  in  discipline 
is  conducive  to  evangelism  or  subversive  of  it.  If  the 
pupils  are  not  being  led  to  Christy  he  can  find  out  why  they 
are  not.  If  certain  teachers  are  to  blame,  the  pastor 
and  superintendent  working  together  can  make  such 
adjustments  in  the  teaching  staff  and  such  organiza- 
tion of  classes  as  will  prevent,  or  at  least  minimize 
any  work  that  would  be  obstructive  to  evangelism.  The 
pastor  could  find  some  other  kind  of  work  about  the 
church  which  would  not  directly  affect  evangelistic  ef- 
fort, and  put  the  inef^cient  or  undesirable  teachers 
at  that  work,  thus  eliminating  altogether  the  obstructive 
forces  of  the  school.  The  evangelistic  emphasis  should 
be  put  so  strongly  before  the  teachers  that  no  one 
out  of  sympathy  with  it  or  hostile  to  it  would  want  to 
remain  on  the  teaching  staff. 

Teachers,  of  course,  are  to  be  allowed  large  liberty 
as  to  method.  Each  teacher,  for  the  most  part,  should 
do  his  evangelistic  work  in  his  own  way  so  long  as  he 
gets  the  work  done.  If  he  wins  his  class  for  Christ,  it 
makes  little  difference  how  he  does  it.     The  result  is 


148  EVANGELISM 

the  main  thing,  not  the  method.  That  principle  the 
pastor  should  safeguard  so  well  that  no  teacher  would 
have  his  own  initiative  destroyed,  nor  would  he  have 
forced  on  him  a  method  so  out  of  keeping  with  his 
temperament  and  ability  that  he  could  not  work  it. 
The  general  principle  could  be  taught  by  the  pastor, 
but  the  details  of  working  it  out  should  largely  be  left 
with  the  teachers,  when  they  have  been  fired  with  a 
passion  to  win  their  pupils  to  Christ. 

One  of  the  greatest  factors  in  the  pastor's  success  in 
evangelism  in  the  Sunday  school  is  to  have  a  clearly 
thought  out  evangelistic  policy  and  program  for  the 
school;  and  in  the  development  of  these  he  should  re- 
ceive the  heartiest  cooperation  of  both  the  superintend- 
ent and  the  teachers.  He  should  never  spring  an  evan- 
gelistic surprise  on  the  school  which  would  confuse 
or  embarrass  his  superintendent  and  teachers.  They 
should  feel  that  they  have  his  utmost  confidence.  It 
will  be  in  the  closest  cooperation  with  them  that  the 
pastor  will  get  his  best  work  done. 

The  pupils  need  not  know  beforehand  what  the  pas- 
tor is  going  to  do,  but  the  cooperating  staff  of  the 
school  ought  to  know,  so  that  they  can  fall  right  in 
with  it,  and  see  it  through  to  a  successful  issue.  A 
well-planned  effort  by  the  pastor  may  utterly  fail  be- 
cause no  one  knew  of  it  beforehand  and  so  could  not 
cooperate  in  carrying  it  out. 

The  Pastor  and  the  Home 

The  pastor  can  make  a  large  indirect  contribution  to 
Sunday  school  evangelism  in  his  pastoral  work  by  en- 
listing the  sympathy  and  cooperation  of  the  parents  in 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     149 

the  efforts  that  are  being  made  by  the  school,  and  par- 
ticularly the  teachers,  for  the  salvation  of  the  children. 
Very  much  more  could  be  done  than  is  done  in  Sunday 
school  evangelism  if  the  parents  and  teachers  did  better 
team  work.  It  often  happens  that  the  parents  don't 
know  the  teachers  of  their  children  even  by  sight,  let 
alone  know  what  the  teachers  are  doing  to  win  those 
children  to  Christ.  The  pastor  can  do  a  line  piece  of 
work  here  that  will  be  reflected  in  the  school  in  a  very 
wonderful  way.  Very  often  the  parents  do  not  under- 
stand either  the  motive  or  method  of  the  teacher  in 
evangelistic  work,  and  they  think  that  the  teacher  is 
bringing  undue  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  children  in 
asking  them  to  make  a  decision,  or  to  take  steps  far 
beyond  their  years.  They  declare  that  the  children  do 
not  know  what  they  are  doing,  and  therefore  they  as 
parents  resent  such  procedure,  even  sometimes  writing 
the  teachers  to  mind  their  own  business  and  informing 
them  that  they  will  attend  to  their  children's  religion 
themselves.  They  will  often  make  their  complaint  to 
the  pastor,  and  tell  him  that  unless  that  kind  of  work 
ceases  they  will  take  their  children  out  of  the  Sunday 
school.  This  offers  a  fine  opportunity  for  the  pastor 
to  say  a  good  word  about  the  teacher,  and  have  a  very 
plain,  frank  talk  with  the  parents.  When  parents  fully 
understand  the  noble  and  sacrificial  work  of  the 
teachers  they  will  rarely  refuse  cooperation.  All  the 
cooperative  work  of  the  home  is  quickly  and  power- 
fully felt  in  the  Sunday  school.  Here  is  an  oppor- 
tunity that  no  pastor  should  let  go  unused. 

The  establishment  of  the  family  altar  in  the  home, 
which  the  pastor  may  encourage  or  secure,  will  con- 


I50  EVANGELISM 

tribute  largely  to  Sunday  school  evangelism.  But  one 
of  the  most  important  things  that  the  pastor  can  do 
in  Sunday  school  evangelism  is  to  safeguard  what  is 
called  child  conversion  and  keep  it  from  being  distorted 
or  being  misunderstood.  Nothing  is  much  more  mis- 
chievous in  religious  work  with  young  people  than  to 
expect  such  a  religious  experience  of  them  as  might 
be  expected  of  people  in  middle  life,  yet  that  is  often 
done.  Some  people  expect  the  same  phenomena  in  the 
conversion  of  a  boy  of  fourteen  who  has  never  gone 
wrong,  as  in  a  man  forty,  who  has  sowed  his  wild  oats, 
played  the  fool,  and  has  become  morally  disfigured  by 
sin.  In  both  cases  they  expect  the  same  remorse  for 
sin,  the  same  bitter  repentance,  the  same  radical  con- 
trast in  living,  and  the  same  joy  at  the  change  that 
takes  place.  Such  a  position  is  absurd.  The  cases 
are  in  no  way  parallel  and  should  not  be  compared 
for  points  of  resemblance.  In  the  case  of  the  well- 
brought  up  boy  who  at  fourteen  makes  his  decision 
for  Christ,  he  is  only  doing  now  deliberately  what  up 
to  this  time  he  had  taken  for  granted.  If  he  had  been 
asked  at  ten,  or  perhaps  twelve,  if  he  was  a  Christian, 
he  would  have  answered  ''Yes."  It  did  not  occur 
to  him  that  he  was  not  a  Christian.  This,  of  course, 
presupposes  that  he  was  carefully  brought  up  by  Chris- 
tian parents,  as  many  Sunday  school  boys  and  girls 
are.  At  fourteen  this  boy,  for  the  first  time,  takes  a 
public  stand  for  Christ.  Perhaps  it  is  the  first  oppor- 
tunity he  has  had  to  do  it.  Of  course  there  will  be  no 
weeping  over  sins  which  the  boy  is  not  conscious  that 
he  ever  committed,  there  will  be  no  marked  contrast 
between  a  life  darkened  by  sin  and  one  lighted  up  by 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     1 5 1 

the  forgiving  grace  of  God.  There  will  very  likely  be 
no  marked  change  of  feeling  except  in  the  satisfaction 
of  now  having  put  on  record  the  feelings  and  beUefs 
he  had  long  cherished.  To  ask  him  to  weep  over  his 
sins  and  beg  for  mercy  in  order  that  his  conversion 
might  conform  to  the  type  of  a  hardened  sinner  would 
be  wicked.  If  he  did,  he  would  have  to  be  insincere 
in  his  tears  and  prayers.  This  would  not  be  true  of 
every  boy  of  fourteen,  but  it  would  be  true  of  many 
boys  and  girls  of  that  age,  and  true  of  more  boys  and 
girls  from  ten  to  twelve;  and  it  might  be  true  of  not 
a  few  up  to  sixteen  years  of  age. 

With  such  children  what  is  called  conversion  might 
more  truly  be  called  consecration.  They  really  go  for- 
ward now  by  their  own  deliberate  decision,  with  the 
Christ  whom  they  have  followed  more  or  less  uncon- 
sciously. They  do  not  turn  around  and  face  the  other 
way,  as  an  old  sinner  does.  But  Christ  now  gives  them 
the  grace  and  help  they  need  to  live  the  Christian  life  as 
they  come  to  him  just  as  he  does  the  sinner  who  has 
been  converted  from  the  error  of  his  way. 

Wherever  deliberate  and  willful  sin  has  been  com- 
mitted there  should  be  deliberate  and  thorough  re- 
pentance, which  is  not  so  much  a  revulsion  of  feeling 
as  a  change  of  mind,  a  change  which  turns  the  wrong 
attitude  of  the  life  toward  God  into  the  right  attitude. 
That  conversion  will  express  itself  quietly  or  enthusi- 
astically according  to  the  temperament  of  the  individ- 
ual. If  the  person  is  highly  emotional,  that  is  the  kind 
of  conversion  he  most  likely  will  have,  while  a  quiet, 
deliberate,  calculating  person  will  have  a  conversion 
whose  expression  will  be  in  keeping  with  his  tempera- 


152  EVANGELISM 

ment.  It  is  folly  to  try  to  fit  all  kinds  of  people  in  a 
Sunday  school  or  rescue  mission — young  and  old,  well 
brought  up  and  ill  brought  up — into  the  same  form 
of  repentance  and  into  the  same  mold  of  conversion. 
The  thing  cannot  be  done,  and  to  insist  upon  it  is  to 
lose  most  of  the  people  who  ought  to  be  won  for  Christ. 
It  is  because  some  teachers  very  innocently  try  to  do 
this  that  the  pastor  must  be  alert  all  the  time  to  see 
that  no  child  is  misled,  discouraged,  or  be  caused  to 
expect  that  something  will  happen  in  a  way  which 
from  the  nature  of  things  in  his  case  will  not  and 
ought  not  to  happen.  There  will  be  morbid  and 
precocious  children,  but  they  will  be  the  exception, 
and  a  wise  pastor  will  deal  exceptionally  with  them. 
But  handling  all  children  as  though  they  were  morbid 
or  precocious  is  senseless,  unjust,  and  absurd. 

The  form  that  children's  so-called  conversion  will 
take,  whether  of  consecration  or  conversion,  going 
straight  on  or  turning  around,  will  depend  largely  on 
temperament,  training,  and  environment.  The  main 
thing  is  to  get  them  to  commit  themselves  to  Christ  in 
a  simple,  whole-hearted,  and  intelligent  way.  They 
need  to  be  made  to  see  that  religion  is  not  a  thing  that 
they  get,  but  a  loving  relationship  of  trust  and  obedi- 
ence to  Jesus  Christ.  All  else  that  is  necessary  may 
be  taught  them  later  on  in  the  training  class  for  pre- 
paratory membership.  It  is  at  this  point  that  the  pas- 
tor can  be  of  great  value  to  the  teacher  and  the  child  in 
Sunday  school  evangelism.  The  pastor  must  instruct 
the  parents  both  from  the  pulpit  and  in  the  home  in 
what  is  to  be  expected  of  children  who  give  themselves 
to  Christ,  and  what  is  to  be  done  for  them.    Certainly, 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     1 53 

too  much  must  not  be  expected  of  them  and,  certainly, 
too  Httle  must  not  be  done  for  them.  They  will  need 
much  help,  sympathy,  and  patience  in  their  religious 
life,  for  they  need  all  this  in  their  physical  and  intel- 
lectual life.  They  are  adolescents  and  hardly  under- 
stand themselves,  and  few  people  understand  them. 
At  this  time  of  their  life  they  can  be  easily  marred  or 
mended,  and  that  permanently.  The  pastor's  part  in 
the  evangelistic  meeting  in  the  Sunday  school  will  be 
discussed  under  "Decision  Day."  The  only  thing  that 
is  attempted  here  is  to  point  out  that  the  pastor  has 
both  the  opportunity  and  the  responsibility  of  evangel- 
istic activity  and  oversight  in  the  Sunday  school. 

Superintendent's  Opportunity 

The  superintendent  has  a  responsibility  because  he 
has  an  opportunity.  He  is  the  official  head  of  the  Sun- 
day school,  and  should  feel  not  only  the  responsibility 
for  its  largest  and  most  vital  success,  but  should  also 
feel  the  privilege  of  being  intrusted  with  the  religious 
guidance  of  the  young  life  of  the  church.  If  he  is  a 
man  of  strong  leadership,  he  can  make  the  school  about 
what  he  wants  it  to  be.  If  he  is  interested  in  evan- 
gelism and  sympathetic  toward  it,  he  can  make  evan- 
gelism very  effective  in  his  school.  If  he  is  unsym- 
pathetic toward  it,  he  can  make  it  almost  an  impossi- 
bility to  do  any  effective  evangelistic  work  in  the  school. 
He  can  very  easily  dissipate  any  profound  impression 
that  the  teacher  makes  on  the  pupils  by  an  incongruous 
closing  exercise.  He  can  make  it  almost  impossible 
for  a  teacher  to  create  a  deep  evangelistic  impression 
by  allowing  all  sorts  of  interruptions  during  the  lesson 


154  EVANGELISM 

period  and  having  a  general  disorder  during  the  clos- 
ing moments  of  the  school.  He  can  make  a  whole  ses- 
sion seem  ridiculous  by  having  some  roving  stranger 
who  tells  funny  stories  and  talks  nonsense  generally, 
address  the  school. 

If  the  superintendent  has  no  evangelistic  policy  or 
program  for  the  school,  or  if  he  is  unsympathetic,  or 
hostile  toward  one,  it  is  almost  useless  to  attempt  any 
public  evangelistic  effort  in  the  school  at  all.  The 
teachers  may  quietly  and  privately  work  with  their 
pupils,  but  a  public  exercise  in  evangelism  would  be 
almost  certain  to  fail,  in  which  case  the  best  piece  of 
constructive  evangelism  would  be  to  get  a  new  superin- 
tendent. A  great,  sustained  opportunity  ought  not  to 
be  wasted  for  the  sake  of  one  person.  Better,  if  need 
be,  to  make  one  man  and  his  family  mad,  and  save 
five  hundred  boys  and  girls,  than  to  humor  that  one 
man  and  let  that  host  of  young  people  pass  through 
the  school  unsaved.  The  pastor  should  do  all  that  he 
can  to  prevent  any  person  holding  any  office  in  the 
church  when  that  office  would  be  used  by  that  person 
to  defeat  the  very  object  for  which  the  church  and 
Sunday  school  exist. 

The  wise  superintendent  will  do  a  great  many  things 
which  indirectly  are  of  great  value  in  Sunday  school 
evangelism.  He  will  protect  the  teacher  against  inter- 
ruption of  any  sort  while  the  lesson  is  being  taught.  He 
will  allow  no  one  to  address  the  school  who  will  strike 
a  discordant  note  in  the  session's  program,  or  who  will 
in  any  way  make  the  close  of  a  Sunday  school  hour 
ridiculous  or  frivolous.  He  will  have  frequent 
teachers'  prayer  meetings,  in  which  the  evangelistic 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     155 

emphasis  will  be  strong.  He  will  have  council  meet- 
ings with  the  teachers  about  their  work,  and  especially 
about  their  success  in  winning  their  pupils  to  Christ. 
When  he  knows  that  a  group  of  teachers  are  working 
to  win  their  classes  he  will  arrange  his  closing  exercises 
so  that  they  will  help  the  teachers  to  focus  the  lesson 
in  some  form  of  appeal  that  will  be  fruitful  of  results. 
He  can  invite  pupils  as  classes  or  individually  to  his 
home  occasionally  and  have  a  frank  talk  with  them 
on  the  matter  of  their  personal  salvation.  He  can  go 
to  the  homes  of  the  pupils  who  are  interested  in  re- 
ligion and  talk  to  them  there  with  their  parents.  He 
can  write  letters  to  many  upon  whom  he  would  not  have 
time  to  call.  He  can  strongly  urge  the  Senior  depart- 
ment and  the  adult  Bible  classes  to  attend  the  Sunday 
evening  preaching  service,  and  then  be  there  himself  to 
give  them  a  welcome  when  they  come  and  invite  them 
to  come  again.  By  talking  the  church,  the  preacher,  and 
the  teacher  up  he  will  go  a  long  way  toward  arousing 
not  only  interest  but  enthusiasm  in  the  pupils.  He  .will 
select  his  teachers  with  evangelism  in  view.  Other 
things  being  equal,  he  will  choose  the  teachers  most 
sympathetic  to  that  work.  He  will  also  make  the  aim 
of  the  school  "Every  member  of  the  school  for  Christ," 
and  he  will  organize  the  school,  select  the  teachers,  and 
prepare  the  session  program  to  that  end.  In  a  word,  he 
will  fit  his  program  to  his  policy.  He  will  invite  men 
to  address  the  Sunday  school  who  have  made  a  success 
in  Hfe,  in  business,  in  the  professions,  to  show  that 
religion  is  a  help,  and  not  a  hindrance,  to  success  in  life. 
He  will  have  travelers  speak  whenever  he  can,  who  will 
show  what  a  difference  Christianity  made  in  the  non- 


156  EVANGELISM 

Christian  world,  in  the  establishment  of  schools  and 
churches,  in  introducing  better  sanitary  methods,  cul- 
tivating a  purer  home  life,  more  ethical  business 
methods,  a  finer  patriotism,  etc.  He  will  have  mission- 
aries come  and  tell  of  the  needs  of  the  non-Christian 
world,  and  the  great  opportunity  the  mission  field  offers 
as  a  life  work  to  young  people  to  help  establish  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  the  earth.  He  can  have  a  prayer 
list  of  the  unconverted  members  of  the  school,  for 
whom  he  himself  would  pray  daily  and  get  others  to 
do  the  same.  He  can  take  his  teachers  when  they  be- 
come discouraged,  as  they  often  do  because  their  classes 
are  restless,  inattentive,  or  unresponsive,  and  give  them 
new  heart  and  hope  by  showing  his  sympathy  for  them 
and  his  kindly  interest  in  them.  He  can  skillfully  re- 
move teachers  that  are  not  effective  by  giving  them 
some  other  kind  of  Sunday  school  work  to  do  for  which 
they  are  better  fitted.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  matters 
relating  to  the  highest  interest  of  the  school,  he  can 
be  in  heartiest  cooperation  with  the  pastor. 

The  Session  Program 

The  superintendent  should  prepare  his  session  pro- 
gram with  as  much  care  as  the  pastor  prepares  for  his 
pulpit.  With  the  graded  lesson  system  it  is  not  always 
easy  to  preserve  unity  in  the  day's  program,  and  very 
difficult  to  keep  an  evangelistic  unity  based  on  the  les- 
sons because  they  are  so  diverse  in  subject-matter  and 
treatment.  While  pedagogically  it  is  far  better,  many 
think,  than  the  International  Lesson  system,  it  has  a 
disadvantage  in  that  there  is  no  unity  of  thought 
throughout  the  school.    This  fact  makes  an  evangelistic 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     1 57 

appeal  difficult  unless  the  whole  program  of  the  day 
has  been  arranged  for  it,  as  it  would  be  on  Decision 
Day,  or  some  other  special  day,  like  Christmas  or  Eas- 
ter or  Children's  Day.  That  being  so,  the  superin- 
tendent can  meet  the  difficulty  by  having  a  carefully  pre- 
pared session  program,  which  will  give  unity  to  the 
whole  session,  independent  of  how  many  different 
kinds  of  lessons  are  being  taught  in  the  classes. 

The  hymns,  the  Scripture  lesson  of  the  opening  serv- 
ice may  be  followed  in  the  closing  service  with  a  con- 
clusion which  will  be  the  climax  of  the  opening  service, 
and  which  will  provide  a  natural  place  for  evangelistic 
emphasis,  or  even  a  direct  appeal.  A  cumulative  ses- 
sion plan  can  be  laid  out  for  a  quarter  or  six  months, 
heading  up  in  some  kind  of  a  decision  service.  The 
superintendent  should  plan  his  session  program,  es- 
pecially in  its  evangelistic  features,  with  the  pastor,  for 
the  pastor's  experience  and  judgment  will  be  of  great 
importance  to  a  layman  not  so  used  to  such  a  pro- 
gram. Of  course  it  would  not  be  well  to  stress  evan- 
gelism every  Sunday,  but  it  should  always  be  the  gen- 
eral atmosphere  of  the  school,  so  that  any  teacher  might 
have  a  Decision  Day  on  any  Sunday  in  his  class,  and 
the  whole  atmosphere  and  attitude  of  the  school  would 
be  favorable  to  it. 

The  Pastor's  Counsel  on   Soul-Winning 

The  pastor  ought  to  attend  the  teachers'  prayer  meet- 
ings, which  ought  to  be  led  by  the  superintendent.  At 
these  meetings  the  pastor  could  give  the  teachers  valu- 
able counsel  on  soul-winning.  In  this  way,  many  a 
timid  teacher  would  learn  to  lead  his  or  her  class  to 


158  EVANGELISM 

Christ.  Most  teachers  would  love  to  do  it  if  they  only 
knew  how.  The  most  fruitful  Sunday  school  revivals 
are  born  in  teachers*  prayer  meetings. 

All  special  days  should  be  used  in  some  effective 
way  to  bring  a  personal  religious  message  to  each 
pupil's  heart. 

The  wise  superintendent  will  have  a  careful  over- 
sight of  the  lives  of  the  boys  and  girls  between  Sun- 
days. He  needs  to  make  himself  such  a  friend  to  them 
that  they  will  make  him  their  confidential  adviser  and 
bring  to  him  all  their  personal  problems.  He  must  set 
a  high  goal  for  the  school,  and  then  enlist  the  coopera- 
tion of  pastor,  teacher,  pupil,  and  parent  to  try  to 
reach  it. 

The  office  of  superintendent  should  not  be  taken  by 
anyone  who  only  wants  it  for  the  honor  of  it,  or  if  he 
intends  to  make  it  a  convenience.  Only  he  who  takes 
it  seriously,  and  considers  it  a  fine  field  for  lay  evan- 
gelism and  religious  culture,  and  who  proposes  to  real- 
ize that  end  in  it,  ought  to  be  a  Sunday  school  super- 
intendent. The  responsibility  of  the  office  might  de- 
press one,  but  the  glory  and  opportunity  of  it  will  in- 
spire one.  To  be  the  lay  pastor  of  the  young  life  of  the 
church  is  such  a  privilege  that  it  should  be  coveted  by 
the  brightest  and  most  consecrated  men  of  the  church. 

.    The  Teacher's  Opportunity 

The  teacher  has  a  responsibihty  because  he  has 
the  best  opportunity  of  any  one  in  the  school  to  come 
into  personal  touch  with  the  individual  pupil.  The 
teacher  is  the  key  person  in  the  Sunday  school  for  dis- 
cipline, instruction,  and  evangelism.     Nothing  worth 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     159 

speaking  of  can  be  done  in  the  school,  either  religiously 
or  intellectually,  without  the  cooperation  of  the  teacher. 
The  class  is  the  Sunday  school  unit,  and  the  teacher 
is  the  key  to  the  class.  Because  religion  is  so  gen- 
erally neglected  in  the  home  the  teacher's  work  be- 
comes all  the  more  important.  He  has  about  the  first 
chance  at  the  child  religiously.  His  work  is  evangel- 
istic and  cultural. 

A  tactful  teacher  can  keep  the  evangelistic  emphasis 
always  at  the  front  without  being  obnoxious  or  ever 
nagging  the  pupils.  It  is  easy  to  put  and  keep  at  the 
front  the  truth  that  the  chief  end  of  life  is  to  be  in 
right  relation  to  God  and  man;  that  life  is  to  find 
its  highest  ideal  in  character  and  its  finest  expression 
in  service.  With  that  kind  of  an  emphasis  a  personal 
appeal  to  dedicate  the  life  to  that  high  purpose  would 
never  seem  farfetched  nor  unnatural. 

Some  teachers  have  been  very  successful  in  reaching  > 
every  member  of  the  class  for  Christ,  by  making  prayer  ■ 
lists  of  the  unconverted,  and  praying  for  them-  by 
name  every  day,  and  then  putting  forth  every  possible 
effort,  wisely  and  sympathetically,  to  answer  their  own 
prayers.  Frequent  private  interviews  with  individual 
members  of  the  class  have  often  proved  successful. 
The  recreation  side  of  life  often  offers  splendid  evan- 
gelistic opportunities.  If  it  is  playing  games,  then  to 
play  the  game  in  an  honest,  manly  way  is  a  good  intro- 
duction to  saying  that  life  is  a  game  and  it  should  be 
played  so  fairly,  honestly,  and  courageously  that  God, 
who  is  looking  on,  would  approve  it.  Such  talk  should 
never  be  prudish  or  have  the  flavor  of  cant  about  it. 
It  should  be  as  natural  and  matter  of  fact  as  if  it  were 


i6o  EVANGELISM 

concerned  with  a  good  clean,  honest  game  of  football, 
baseball,  tennis,  or  golf.  Religion  is  not  to  be  thought 
of  or  spoken  of  as  a  detached  thing  that  has  little  to  do 
with  life  between  Sundays.  The  religious  life  is  the 
noblest  life  that  can  be  lived  all  the  days. 

But  it  is  unreasonable  to  expect  too  much  of  teachers. 
Many  of  them  are  poorly  equipped  to  teach,  and  that 
through  no  fault  of  their  own.  Then,  too,  many  of 
them  are  very  busy  people,  and  have  few  facilities  for 
lesson  preparation,  and  yet  they  willingly  give  of  their 
time  and  strength,  and  do  the  best  they  can,  and  for 
that  they  have,  or  ought  to  have,  great  commendation. 
Many  of  just  such  teachers  have  been  successful  soul- 
winners.  They  were  not  able  to  give  their  classes 
much  valuable  instruction,  but  they  did  lead  them  to 
Christ.  Of  course,  when  to  fine  teaching  equipment 
there  is  added  a  passion  for  souls  and  a  devotion  to  the 
class,  such  teachers  are  the  most  effective  Sunday 
school  evangelists  the  church  has. 

The  teacher's  evangelistic  program  will  issue  through 
three  avenues  of  approach : 

Avenues  of  Approach 

(i)  Through  the  Bible.  It  is  unfortunate  that  so 
few  teachers  have  their  Bibles  in  the  class,  and  that 
still  fewer  require  that  their  pupils  use  their  Bibles  in 
class.  Lesson  leaves  and  quarterlies,  which  are  of 
immense  value  in  lesson  preparation,  are  too  generally 
used  in  class  instead  of  the  Bible.  The  result  is  that 
the  pupils  do  not  get  acquainted  with  the  Bible  as  a 
book,  and  its  gripping  messages  therefore  do  not  ap- 
peal to  them.     To  the  average  Sunday  school  pupil  a 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     i6i 

lesson  leaf  has  not  much  authority.  When  the  lesson 
is  over,  the  leaf  can  be  thrown  into  the  wastebasket,  or 
along  the  street  or  road  on  their  way  home.  They  do 
not  have  the  reverence  for  the  lesson  leaf  that  they 
would  for  the  Bible,  and  it  is  harder  to  base  an  appeal 
on  it  than  if  they  handled  the  Bible  itself  and  could 
turn  to  its  counsels  and  read  them  for  themselves. 

Then,  too,  nothing  creates  a  love  for  the  Bible  like 
the  study  of  it.  It  is  easy  to  make  an  appeal  to  a  class 
when  everyone  in  the  class  has  a  Bible  open  at  some 
lesson  which  is  in  itself  a  strong  appeal.  The  subject 
of  religion  is  always  introduced,  and  the  lesson  of  the 
Book  can  at  once  be  applied  to  the  needs  of  the  class. 

The  Bible  is  the  most  fascinating  book  in  the  world 
when  it  is  understood.  It  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  the 
wonder-loving  age.  Its  stories,  heroes,  ideals,  prac- 
tical maxims;  its  friendships;  its  fine  courage;  its 
frankness,  sympathy,  strength,  and  tenderness ;  its  clear 
warnings,  inspiring  promises;  its  beautiful  poetry,  deep 
philosophy,  lofty  religion;  its  picture  of  God,  history 
of  Jesus — all  this  makes  it  an  irresistible  book  which 
the  teacher  can  bring  home  to  the  eager-minded  youth 
of  the  class.  When  a  love  of  the  Bible,  through  a 
knowledge  of  it,  has  been  inspired  in  a  class  they  are 
more  than  half  won  to  Christ.  The  teacher  can  make 
them  see  that  the  Bible  is  a  young  people's  book  for 
to-day,  as  well  as  an  old  people's  book  for  to-morrow. 
It  is  a  book  to  live  by  more  than  it  is  to  die  by.  It 
is  an  everyday  book  as  well  as  a  Sunday  book.  There 
is  no  part  of  life  to  which  it  does  not  apply.  If  they 
can  be  made  to  see  its  practical  value,  quite  apart  from 
any  of  its  academic  difficulties  of  date,  authorship,  etc., 


i62  EVANGELISM 

their  faith  would  not  be  so  often  shaken  when  they  go 
to  college,  and  under  new  and  larger  light  have  to  sur- 
render many  of  their  traditional  beliefs.  This  shift  of 
intellectual  attitude  will  not  affect  their  faith  in  the 
Bible  if  they  have  tried  it  out  in  practical  life  and  found 
that  it  worked.  They  know  and  have  felt  its  religious 
power  whether  they  can  solve  all  its  academic  problems 
or  not.  If  they  have  been  brought  into  a  loving  fel- 
lowship with  Jesus  Christ,  and  have  a  rich  Christian 
experience  through  the  study  of  the  Bible,  their  faith 
will  be  strengthened  rather  than  weakened  in  the  Bible 
by  every  new  ray  of  light  that  can  be  thrown  upon  it. 
The  Bible  is  its  own  best  commentary.  Many  of  the 
Old  Testament's  difficulties,  especially  of  its  ethics, 
are  solved  by  revelation  when  it  is  complete  in  the 
New  Testament,  especially  in  the  life  and  teachings  of 
Jesus. 

A  broad  and  sympathetic  use  of  the  Bible  in  the 
class  will  give  the  teacher  a  weekly  opportunity  for 
quiet  and  tactful  evangelism,  which  will  cHmax  with 
great  success  on  Decision  Day. 

(2)  The  second  avenue  of  approach  is  through  the 
religious  experience  of  the  teacher.  The  teacher  can 
make  the  Christian  life  attractive  by  being  an  attrac- 
tive Christian.  Example  is  always  more  powerful 
than  precept,  especially  to  young  people.  The  kind  of 
a  Christian  life  their  teacher  Hves  will  appeal  to  them 
far  more  strongly  than  any  kind  of  a  life  that  can  be 
recommended,  or  any  good  life  that  was  lived  hundreds 
of  years  ago.  They  want  to  see  how  religion  works 
to-day. 

Very  often  young  people  think  of  the  Christian  life 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     16-, 


0 


as  something  very  unreal  and  heavenly  that  old  saints 
or  inspired  people  lived  years  ago,  that  it  is  an  ideal 
which  is  well  to  keep  in  mind  but  cannot  be  lived  by 
one  in  the  world  to-day.  Perhaps  in  no  place  is  it 
more  difficult  to  live  an  exemplary  life  and  show  a 
real  Christian  spirit  of  tact  and  grace  and  patience  than 
before  a  class  of  restless,  inattentive  boys  or  giggling 
girls,  who  think  of  little  else  than  beaus  and  dress. 
Both  boys  and  girls  will  get  over  that  and  settle  down 
to  be  fine  young  men  and  women,  but  in  the  time  of 
it  they  test  the  patience  and  grace  of  the  average  teacher 
almost  to  the  breaking  point.  Happy  is  that  teacher 
who,  under  such  trying  circumstances,  can  show  such 
strength  and  tenderness,  such  grace  and  patience,  such 
tact  and  sympathy,  such  humor  and  reverence,  that  his 
life  is  the  ideal  of  Christianity  realized  before  the  class. 
When  the  members  of  the  class  say,  "If  what  our 
teacher  lives  is  the  Christian  life,  we  want  to  be  Chris- 
tians," that  teacher  is  a  living  embodiment  of  personal 
evangelism.  It  is  easy  for  that  teacher  to  invite  his 
pupils  to  be  Christians.  His  life  is  a  sustained  in- 
vitation. 

The  boys  and  girls  of  the  "teen"  age  for  the  most 
part  are  hero  worshipers.  It  is  the  strong,  brave,  self- 
sacrificing  life  that  appeals  to  them  and  when  they  see 
a  Christian  actually  living  those  splendid  qualities  in 
a  natural  and  winsome  way  it  is  not  difficult  to  win 
them  to  that  kind  of  a  life.  But  they  despise  any- 
thing that  is  weak,  sentimental,  or  so  "other  worldly" 
that  it  does  not  touch  the  ground  in  this  world.  They 
want  a  religion  that  fights  battles,  faces  dangers,  en- 
dures hardships,  plays  games,  and  does  all  other  things 


i64  EVANGELISM 

that  are  of  a  high  order.  When  that  type  of  religion 
is  Hved  before  them,  and  put  to  them,  they  usually 
respond  to  it  with  great  readiness. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  find  a  teacher  who  combines 
all  these  fine  traits,  but  many  of  these  traits  can  be 
cultivated  for  the  teacher's  own  sake,  as  well  as  for 
the  sake  of  the  class.  The  superintendent,  should  be 
very  careful  in  the  selection  of  his  teachers  if  he  ex- 
pects to  have  a  successful  evangelistic  policy  in  his 
Sunday  school. 

(3)  The  third  avenue  of  approach  is  to  give  the 
pupils  the  correct  ideas  about  God.  To  most  people  old 
or  young,  Christian  or  not,  God  does  not  seem  to  be 
anywhere  around.  He  is  somewhere  above  the  sky,  in 
heaven — wherever  that  may  be — but  certainly  he  is 
not  down  in  the  everyday  life  of  the  world.  The 
teacher  is  to  disabuse  the  pupils'  minds  of  any  such 
foolish  notion.  He  needs  to  assure  them  of  God's 
presence  in  the  class,  of  his  interest  in  and  sympathy 
for  every  member  of  it.  Little  children  have  no  diffi- 
culty in  believing  this.  To  them  God  is  very  real  and 
very  near.  They  talk  to  him  as  they  do  to  their  own 
parents,  and  believe  that  he  will  answer  their  prayers. 
It  is  a  sad  thing  when  their  sky  lifts  and  God  recedes 
into  an  indefinite  "somewhere."  The  teacher  should 
keep  their  belief  in  the  nearness  and  goodness  of  God 
as  vital  and  clear  as  possible,  and  in  no  way  can  that 
be  done  better  than  in  practicing  the  presence  of  God 
himself  and  talking  to  God  in  prayer  as  though  he  was 
right  there.  If  the  teacher  feels  the  immediate  pres- 
ence of  God,  it  will  go  a  long  way  toward  making  the 
pupils  feel  it  too. 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     165 

The  pupils  must  not  think  of  God  as  an  infinite  po- 
liceman or  jailor  or  even  a  monarch  sitting  on  a  throne 
somewhere  off  in  the  universe,  no  one  knows  just 
where;  but  they  do  need  to  think  of  him  as  a  loving 
and  good  Father,  as  he  is  seen  in  Jesus  Christ.  "He 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father"  (John  14.  9) 
is  a  truth  that  the  teacher  needs  to  make  very  clear. 
If  the  boys  and  girls  want  to  know  what  God  is  like, 
they  can  be  given  a  description  of  Jesus,  and  the  teacher 
can  say,  **God  is  like  Jesus."  They  need  to  think  of 
Jesus  as  present,  not  one  who  lived  two  thousand  years 
ago  and  hasn't  been  on  earth  since.  The  teachers  must 
make  them  feel  that  Jesus  is  with  them,  that  he  loves 
them,  that  he  needs  them,  and  that  he  will  use  them 
in  the  best  and  happiest  service  of  their  lives.  That 
makes  an  appeal  easy. 

So  the  teacher's  evangelistic  approach  is  through  the 
interpreting  of  a  book,  the  exemplifying  of  a  life,  and 
the  introducing  of  a  person;  that  is,  through  the  Bible, 
Christian  experience,  and  God.  A  class  intelligently 
approached  through  these  three  avenues  in  most  cases 
can  be  won  to  the  Christian  life.  The  teacher  also  can 
do  much  for  the  children  by  visiting  their  homes  and 
enlisting  the  parents'  cooperation  in  their  behalf. 

The  Parents'  Opportunity 

(4)  The  parents  have  responsibilities  because  they, 
most  of  all,  have  the  best  opportunities  to  teach  religion 
to  their  children  and  to  bring  them  up  in  the  Christian 
life.  The  home  too  often  turns  the  whole  task  of  the 
religious  training  of  the  child  over   to  the   Sunday 


1 66  EVANGELISM 

school.  That  is  unfair  to  the  school,  because  it  is  ex- 
pecting too  much  of  it  for  the  limited  time  it  has  with 
the  child,  and  it  is  unfair  to  the  child  because  he  has  a 
fundamental  right  to  be  taught  religion  at  home,  and 
because  the  training  of  the  Sunday  school  is  inadequate 
to  meet  his  religious  needs.  No  parent  would  think 
that  his  child  had  a  fair  chance  at  an  education  who 
only  had  one  hour  a  week  schooling.  If  the  mind 
needs  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  hours  a  week  for  ten 
months  in  the  year,  through  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  for 
training  to  make  it  capable  of  having  a  fair  chance  in 
the  world  for  business  success,  certainly  the  soul  needs 
more  than  an  hour  a  week  through  the  same  period  to 
give  it  a  fair  chance  in  the  world  for  character-build- 
ing. Yet  parents  who  want  their  children  to  have  both 
success  and  character  will  see  to  it  that  they  get  the 
best  that  the  schools  can  give  them  in  secular  training, 
and  seem  to  be  indifferent  to  their  religious  training, 
except  such  as  may  be  gotten  an  hour  a  week  in  Sunday 
school.  If  they  should  fail  in  Hfe  for  want  of  an 
education,  all  sorts  of  excuses  would  be  made  for  them. 
If  they  should  fail  morally,  great  surprise  would  be  ex- 
pressed. Parents  would  say:  "Well,  we  did  out  duty 
by  them.  We  sent  them  to  Sunday  school.  If  the 
Sunday  school  had  done  its  duty,  they  would  not  have 
gone  wrong." 

It  is  true  if  the  Sunday  school  had  a  better  evangelis- 
tic policy  and  program,  a  great  many  more  youths  and 
maidens  would  be  saved,  in  spite  of  what  little  help 
they  get  at  home.  But  for  parents  to  say  that  they  did 
their  duty  to  the  children  in  the  matter  of  religion 
when  they  sent  them  to  Sunday  school  would  be  funny 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     167 

if  it  were  not  so  serious.  It  shows  how  lightly  many 
people  hold  parenthood. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  parents  are  so  reticent  about 
teaching  their  children  religion  is  that  they  have  no 
family  worship,  and  it  seems  a  little  strange  and  un- 
natural for  them  to  introduce  the  subject  when  there  is 
nothing  to  suggest  it.  Family  worship  would  give  an 
easy  and  a  natural  method  of  approach.  To  this  end 
there  not  only  ought  to  be  family  worship  in  every 
Christian  home,  but  it  should  be  made  bright  and  at- 
tractive to  the  children,  so  thay  would  love  religion 
rather  than  dread  it.  Family  worship  has  often  failed 
of  the  very  purpose  it  was  to  serve  because  it  was  not 
adapted  to  the  child  life  of  the  home. 

Another  reason  why  parents  are  reticent  about  re- 
ligion is  that  some  of  them  came  into  the  church  when 
they  were  children  without  any  training,  and  they  are 
afraid  if  their  children  should  ask  them  any  questions 
about  the  spiritual  life  they  could  not  answer  them,  and 
they  do  not  like  to  be  put  at  such  a  disadvantage.  Of- 
ten their  children  are  better  educated  religiously  than 
they  are ;  the  children  know  more  about  the  Bible  than 
the  parents  do,  and  the  latter  are  afraid  they  will  not 
be  able  to  answer  a  question  of  information  or  to  hold 
their  own  in  an  argument. 

Still  another  reason  is  that  parents  know  their  chil- 
dren see  them  at  short  range  and  in  all  their  moods, 
and  they  feel  that  their  own  religious  life  is  not  con- 
sistent or  good  enough  to  be  a  model  for  their  children, 
therefore  they  let  the  Sunday  school  look  after  the 
religious  side  of  child  culture. 

In  many  cases  too  the  parents  are  not  Christians,  and 


i68  EVANGELISM 

so  can  be  of  no  help  and  often  are  a  hindrance  to  their 
children  becoming  Christians.  Many  times  the  chil- 
dren are  sent  to  Sunday  school  because  it  is  a  perfectly 
safe  place  for  them,  while  the  parents  themselves  in- 
dulge in  recreations  or  make  or  receive  calls.  So  that 
altogether  children  do  not  get  as  much  religious  en- 
couragement or  help  in  the  home  as  they  should,  and 
that  makes  the  task  of  the  Sunday  school  much  more 
difficult. 

If  the  teachers  knew  that  the  parents  would  follow 
up  in  the  home  the  religious  help  which  they  begin  to 
give  the  children  in  the  Sunday  school,  much  more 
would  be  done.  But  teachers  often  fear  that  the  hin- 
drances in  the  home  would  more  than  offset  the  help 
in  the  class,  so  it  would  be  better  to  let  the  whole 
matter  of  evangelism  alone,  till  the  children  grow  up 
and  decide  the  matter  for  themselves;  then  it  will  be 
the  opportunity  and  duty  of  the  pastor  and  the  church, 
and  not  of  the  teacher  and  the  Sunday  school,  to  evan- 
gelize them. 

Family  Worship 

Now,  there  are  some  things  that  parents,  especially 
those  who  are  members  of  the  church,  can  do  to  greatly 
help  the  evangelistic  policy  of  the  school : 

I.  Have  family  worship.  This  may  be  difficult  in 
many  cases,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  is  almost  impossi- 
ble to  get  all  the  members  of  the  family  together  at 
any  one  time  of  day.  It  would  be  ideal  to  have  family 
worship  twice  a  day,  but  that  might  be  expecting  too 
much  of  the  average  parents.  But  it  would  be  far 
better  if  they  could  only  have  family  worship  once  a 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     169 

week,  say  on  Sunday,  than  not  to  have  it  at  all.  If 
they  could  not  have  it  on  Sunday  morning,  then  try 
Sunday  evening,  at  which  time  some  of  the  work  done 
in  the  Sunday  school  could  be  talked  over,  and  the  good 
impression  fastened  with  good  resolutions  and  Chris- 
tian decisions.  The  teacher  occasionally  could  be  in- 
vited to  supper  and  then  take  part  in  the  family  wor- 
ship. That  would  be  especially  opportune  if  some  keen 
religious  interest  had  been  taken  that  day  in  the  class 
by  the  children  of  that  home. 

Family  worship  can  be  greatly  simplified,  and  many 
families  would  find  it  neither  difficult  nor  even  incon- 
venient if  the  following  method  were  adopted :  Make 
it  a  part  of  the  morning  or  evening  meal,  or,  better, 
both  if  possible.  It  would  add  only  five  or  eight  min- 
utes to  the  length  of  the  meal,  and  that  would  not  make 
it  irksome.  The  family  would  more  likely  be  together 
then  than  at  any  other  hours  of  the  day,  and  as  a  rule, 
there  would  be  less  interruption  then  than  at  any  other 
time.  While  all  are  at  the  table  a  chapter  could  be 
read,  preferably  from  the  New  Testament,  as,  for  the 
most  part,  it  lends  itself  to  devotional  reading  better 
than  the  Old  Testament  does.  This  could  be  followed 
by  a  brief  prayer,  for  when  devotions  are  held  every 
day  the  prayers  can  afford  to  be  brief.  That  would 
keep  the  subject  of  religion  always  before  the  family, 
and  any  time  the  parents  saw  fit  they  might  converse 
with  their  children  about  it  in  a  natural  and  easy  way. 
Thus  family  worship  would  create  an  atmosphere  in  the 
home  which  would  be  favorable  to  religion  and  would 
ably  second  any  work  that  the  teachers  were  trying  to 
do  toward  that  end  in  the  Sunday  school.    In  the  home 


I70  EVANGELISM 

religion  can  be  made  so  wholesome  and  natural  that 
children  will  not  think  that  they  have  to  be  odd  or  old- 
fashioned  if  they  become  Christians,  and  that  will  do 
much  toward  predisposing  them  to  religion.  The  home 
is  the  best  place  both  to  teach  and  to  live  "the  sweet 
reasonableness"  of  religion, 

2.  The  parents  occasionally  can  visit  the  Sunday 
school  and  there  find  out  just  what  the  teachers  are 
trying  to  do  for  the  religious  instruction  of  their  chil- 
dren. If  parents  would  do  that,  two  false  notions  that 
quite  widely  prevail  would  be  corrected.  One  is  that 
teachers  bring  undue  pressure  upon  the  children  to. 
make  them  Christians  and  thus  embarrass  them  or  turn 
them  against  religion  altogether.  When  they  saw 
what  the  teachers  were  actually  doing,  how  gentle  and 
wise  they  were,  they  would  see  that  the  first  impres- 
sion was  not  well  founded.  The  second  wrong  impres- 
sion that  would  be  corrected  is  that  the  teachers  are 
just  entertaining  their  classes  and  not  teaching  them 
either  the  Bible  or  religion.  The  one  impression  was 
that  the  teachers  were  too  religious ;  the  other  was  that 
the  teachers  were  not  religious  enough.  The  parents 
would  find  that  both  impressions  were  wrong.  If 
either  had  any  truth  in  it,  the  best  way  to  bring  the 
teachers  to  a  better  mind  and  method  would  be  the  fre- 
quent unannounced  visits  of  the  parents.  In  that  way 
both  parents  and  teachers  would  be  satisfied. 

It  would  be  a  great  stimulus  to  good  teaching  to  have 
the  parents  take  interest  enough  in  the  school  to  visit 
it  occasionally  and  thus  show  their  appreciation  for 
what  the  school  was  doing  in  their  children's  behalf. 
A  very  close  and  sympathetic  cooperation  between  the 


OPPORTUNITY— RESPONSIBILITY     171 

parents  and  teachers  would  do  a  great  deal  toward  the 
evangelizing  of  the  children. 

The  Sunday  School  Helping  the  Home 

Home  interest  could  be  greatly  helped  if  the  super- 
intendent and  teachers  visited  the  homes  a  little  more 
often  than  they  do,  or  wrote  friendly  letters  when  they 
could  not  call.  Of  course  it  would  mean  a  good  deal 
of  work  added  to  already  busy  people,  but  it  would  be 
well  worth  while.  Parents  ought  to  be  more  interested 
in  the  conversion  and  Christian  culture  of  their  own 
children  than  any  teacher  or  other  outside  person  could 
be,  but  that  does  not  always  seem  to  be  the  case,  for 
often  parents  will  not  even  cooperate  with  the  teachers 
in  that  work.  Then  if  the  children  go  wrong  the  par- 
ents often  blam^  the  Sunday  school  and  say  if  the 
teachers  had  done  their  duty  the  children  would  not 
have  gone  wrong.  If  the  parents  do  not  do  all  in  their 
power  to  back  up  what  the  teachers  are  trying  to  do 
it  comes  with  ill  grace  from  them  when  they  lay  the 
whole  responsibility  of  their  children's  wrong  doing 
at  the  feet  of  the  Sunday  school  teacher. 

The  hearty  cooperation  of  the  home  and  Sunday 
school  would  easily  double  the  Sunday  school's  evan- 
gelistic efficiency.  Parents  would  be  surprised  at  what 
could  be  done  for  the  religious  life  of  their  children 
if  they  went  about  it  as  reasonably  and  naturally  as 
they  do  about  any  other  matter  of  their  welfare  and 
culture. 


CHAPTER  II 

DECISION  DAY 

This  is  the  day  that  most  Sunday  schools  use  as 
the  harvest  time  for  the  evangeHstic  work  of  the  year. 
There  ought  to  be  several  such  days  in  the  course  of 
the  year.  There  should  be  at  least  two  such  days — 
Christmas  and  Easter,  although  these  days  are  seldom 
used  as  Decision  Days.  They  are  given  up  for  the 
most  part  to  entertainments  of  some  sort.  But  the 
natural  religious  appeal  of  these  two  days  is  greater 
than  of  any  other  two  days  of  the  year.  Christmas 
time  celebrates  God's  gift  of  his  Son  to  the  world.  It 
is  the  time  of  giving,  and  the  appeal  at  that  time  for 
young  people  to  give  God  their  hearts  would  be  both 
natural  and  powerful.  Eastertime  celebrates  Christ's 
giving  of  himself.  That  is  the  truest  test  of  a  friend- 
ship and  the  highest  expression  of  Saviourhood.  The 
appeal  of  Easter  is  the  appeal  of  the  cross,  but  of  the 
cross  that  conquered.  The  services  of  Christmas  week 
and  of  Holy  Week,  both  in  the  church  and  Sunday 
school,  are  such  that  if  rightly  used  they  can  be  of 
great  evangelistic  value.  Many  times  Decision  Day 
is  of  little  value  because  it  has  been  too  hastily  gotten 
up,  the  work  not  sufficiently  planned,  and  the  workers 
not  properly  organized  and  trained. 

.  For  Decision  Day  there  should  be  a  general  and  a 
special  preparation. 

172 


DECISION  DAY  173 

I.  General  preparation.  If  the  first  Decision  Day 
is  to  be  held  about  Christmas  time  or  on  Christmas 
Sunday,  the  general  preparation  should  begin  as  early 
as  Rally  Day,  which  occurs  some  time  near  the  end 
of  September  or  the  first  Sunday  in  October.  On  that 
day  the  evangelistic  program  of  the  year  and  the  ideal 
of  the  school  can  be  announced.  Both  pupils  and 
teachers  can  be  urged  to  bend  all  their  energies  toward 
the  realization  of  the  school's  ideal,  "Every  member 
of  the  school  for  Christ."  That  strikes  an  evangeHstic 
note  from  the  first,  and  the  teachers  can  easily  keep 
that  note  prominent  in  their  teaching  right  along.  Dur- 
ing the  early  weeks  of  the  fall,  every  home  represented 
in  the  school  should  be  visited  by  the  pastor,  and  each 
teacher  should  visit  the  homes  of  his  class.  It  is  very 
necessary  that  the  homes  should  be  in  harmony  with 
this  movement,  so  that  there  would  be  no  obstructive 
forces  at  work  while  the  general  preparation  was  going 
on.  The  session  program  of  the  school  (not  the  les- 
son program)  is  a  special  order  of  exercises  which 
the  superintendent  arranges  with  the  aid  of  pastor, 
and  should  be  planned  so  as  to  focus  evangelistically 
on  Decision  Day.  Daily  readings  should  be  prepared 
for  the  home.  These  should  have  a  strong  evangelistic 
emphasis.  Great  examples  of  heroism,  devotion,  faith, 
high  ideals,  etc.,  should  be  the  themes  for  home  read- 
ings. As  Decision  Day  approaches  Christmas  time  the 
home  readings  should  have  to  do  with  God's  plan  of 
redemption,  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  God's  love  for 
the  world,  and  similar  topics. 

In  those  early  weeks  frequent  teacher  prayer  meet- 
ings should  be  held.     After  prayer  for  the  pupils  has 


174  EVANGELISM 

been  offered  by  the  teachers,  the  pastor  should  give 
talks  on  the  art  of  soul-winning,  showing  the  teachers 
how  to  present  Christ  and  secure  decisions,  urging 
them  to  receive  as  many  decisions  for  Decision  Day  as 
possible.  It  is  very  important  that  all  the  teachers  be 
present  at  those  prayer  and  training  meetings. 
Teachers  who  will  not  do  it  may  defeat  the  whole  pro- 
gram on  Decision  Day. 

Whatever  literature  is  to  be  used  on  that  day  ought 
to  be  carefully  thought  out  and  printed  so  that  nothing 
may  be  lacking  on  Decision  Day.  Groups  of  the  most 
tactful  older  pupils  who  are  consistent  Christians  and 
have  a  wholesome  influence  in  their  classes  and  in  the 
school  should  be  organized  into  personal  workers' 
bands  to  win  as  many  of  their  young  friends  as  they 
can,  whether  they  are  members  of  their  classes  or  not. 
The  pastor  and  superintendent  should  have  a  list  of  all 
the  unconverted  members  of  the  school.  They  may  get 
the  names  from  the  teachers,  and  these  should  be  made 
special  subjects  for  prayer. 

2.  Special  preparation.  About  a  month  before  De- 
cision Day  a  brief  teachers'  prayer  meeting  should  be 
held  each  Sunday  after  the  Sunday  school  session 
closes.  The  pastor  can  preach  strong  evangelistic  ser- 
mons both  morning  and  evening.  The  prayer  meet- 
ing can  take  the  form  of  an  intercession  meeting. 
Group  prayer  meetings  in  the  homes  may  be  held,  and 
all  the  activities  of  the  church  converge  toward  evan- 
gelism. Personal  interviews  with  the  pupils  who  are  to 
be  won  to  Christ  should  be  sought.  The  last  ten  or 
fifteen  minutes  of  the  Sunday  school  session  may  occa- 
sionally be  devoted  to  prayer  in  which  teachers  and 


DECISION  DAY  175 

the  older  pupils  of  the  school  may  participate.  If  some 
of  the  strong  popular  young  men  of  the  Bible  class 
will  offer  prayer,  it  will  be  especially  effective.  The 
boys  of  the  school  keep  a  close  watch  on  the  young 
men,  and  they  are  ready  to  imitate  them  whenever  they 
can. 

Decision  Day  Program 

On  the  Sunday  before  Decision  Day  the  program  of 
the  day  should  be  completed  and  thoroughly  explained 
to  the  teachers.  There  should  be  no  misunderstanding 
of  what  each  one  is  to  do  and  when  and  how  to  do  it. 
This  is  especially  important  if  Decision  Cards  are  to 
be  used;  the  teachers  should  know  just  when  and  how 
to  use  them. 

When  Decision  Day  arrives,  an  hour  before  the 
session  all  the  Sunday  School  Board  should  meet  with 
the  pastor  and  the  superintendent  for  final  instruction. 
It  would  almost  amount  to  a  rehearsal ;  but  unless  that 
is  done,  some  blunder  is  likely  to  hinder  the  highest 
efficiency  of  the  service.  All  the  detail  work  of  the 
school,  such  as  records,  collections,  notices,  etc.,  should 
be  out  of  the  way  before  the  Decision  Day  program 
proper  begins.  Nothing  must  be  left  undone  which 
will  have  to  be  finished  after  the  service  is  over.  Such 
an  omission  can  but  detract  from  the  interest  of  the 
session  and  take  the  attention  from  the  main  thing  that 
is  to  be  done.  All  the  routine  work  of  the  school 
should  be  done  before  the  Decision  service  begins. 
The  teachers  are  to  be  in  their  places  promptly  and  a 
little  before  their  pupils  arrive.  This  should  always  be 
the  case,  but  especially  on  this  day.     If  decision  cards 


176  EVANGELISM 

are  to  be  used,  the  teachers  should  have  them  in  their 
desks,  and  enough  for  every  member  of  the  class.  They 
should  not  be  given  out  until  the  pastor  who  will  con- 
duct the  service  on  that  day  tells  them  to.  Then  after 
a  bright  song  service,  a  Scripture  lesson,  and  a  brief, 
pertinent  prayer,  the  pastor,  or  some  one  chosen  for 
the  purpose,  will  give  a  fifteen-  or  twenty-minute  ad- 
dress that  will  be  strong  and  clear,  challenging,  win- 
some, and  free  from  cant,  one  that  will  directly  end 
up  in  an  appeal  for  decision. 

At  this  point  the  leader  takes  up  a  decision  card, 
reads,  and  explains  it.  The  card  should  be  briefly 
drafted,  like  the  card  referred  to  on  page  one  hundred 
and  three.  On  the  one  side  the  simple  statement,  "I 
have  an  earnest  desire  to  be  a  Christian,  and  am  willing 
to  take  whatever  help  may  be  given  me."  On  the  other 
side  the  declaration  could  be  a  little  stronger:  "I  ac- 
cept Jesus  Christ  as  my  Saviour,  and  with  his  help  I 
mean  to  live  a  Christian  Hfe."  On  both  sides  should 
be  a  space  for  the  name  and  the  address  of  the  signer. 
When  the  leader  makes  his  appeal  and  takes  the  card 
to  explain  it,  the  teachers  should  give  a  card  to  every 
member  of  the  class  so  that  no  one  would  be  made  con- 
spicuous. The  pupils  look  at  the  card  while  the  leader 
explains  it.  Then  a  few  minutes  are  given  so  that  the 
teachers  can  talk  the  matter  over  with  their  classes. 
Then  just  before  they  are  asked  to  sign  the  cards  a 
brief  prayer  is  offer  to  get  everybody  thoughtful  and 
serious,  and  God's  blessing  is  asked  upon  what  is  about 
to  be  done.  Then  the  pupils  who  are  not  professed 
Christians  or  church  members  are  asked  to  sign.  Then 
after  the  cards  are  signed,  the  pastor  should  offer  a 


DECISION  DAY  177 

prayer  of  consecration  that  God  would  set  his  seal  upon 
what  was  done,  and  that  the  signing  of  the  cards  carry 
with  it  the  dedication  of  the  lives  of  all  those  young 
people  to  Jesus  Christ  in  loving  loyalty  and  willing 
service.  Then  might  be  softly  sung  the  hymn  begin- 
ning, 

"Take  my  life,  and  let  it  be, 
Consecrated,   Lord,   to   Thee." 

The  cards  should  be  made  in  duplicate,  so  that  the 
pupil  might  retain  one  half  and  give  the  other  to  the 
teacher,  which  he  would  turn  over  to  the  pastor.  At 
the  close  of  the  service  all  those  who  signed  cards 
should  be  called  together  with  their  teachers  in  another 
room,  where  the  pastor  could  give  them  further  in- 
struction. The  use  of  the  card  is  only  an  introduction 
for  the  teacher,  pastor,  or  parent  to  do  personal  work 
with  the  pupil  until  he  comes  to  a  real  Christian  expe- 
rience adapted  to  his  age  and  needs.  The  close  of  the 
Decision  Day  is  the  beginning  of  personal  work  with 
the  signers.  The  teachers  could  have  oversight  of  the 
converts  of  their  own  classes.  The  help  of  the  parents 
should  be  enlisted  in  their  behalf.  The  pastor  should 
organize  them  into  classes  for  preparatory  member- 
ship as  described  in  Part  IV,  Chapters  I-III.  If  any 
other  form  of  decision  is  adopted,  as  going  forward  or 
standing,  the  same  general  principle  of  concerted  action 
should  be  observed. 

When  the  Christmas  Decision  Day  is  over,  prepara- 
tory work  for  the  Easter  Decision  Day  should  begin. 
The  same  general  and  special  lines  of  preparation  can  be 
followed,  of  course  adapting  the  message  and  the  appeal 
to  the  Easter  season  and  spirit.     That  will  keep  the 


178  EVANGELISM 

evangelistic  emphasis  in  the  Sunday  school  the  whole 
year.  Conversions  will  be  taking  place  right  along 
through  the  year  as  well  as  on  the  Decision  Days,  and 
it  will  be  regarded  as  the  normal  work  of  the  school 
not  only  to  teach  the  Bible  but  to  win  the  pupils  to 
Christ. 

Now,  if  the  pastor,  the  superintendent,  the  teachers, 
and  the  parents  all  unite  in  a  definite  evangelistic  pro- 
gram for  the  young  people  of  the  Sunday  school,  in- 
stead of  sixty  per  cent  or  thereabout  going  out  of  the 
school  unsaved,  not  ten  per  cent  would;  and  if  that 
were  true,  the  membership  of  the  church  would  be  con- 
siderably more  than  doubled  in  a  single  year.  The 
Sunday  school  as  a  field  of  evangelism  is  white  unto 
the  harvest.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  opportunities 
of  this  field  will  be  more  clearly  seen  and  more  faith- 
fully used  in  the  future  than  they  have  been  in  the 
past. 

For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  of  Sun- 
day School  Evangelism,  see  the  author's  recent  book — 
The  Sunday  School  An  Evangelistic  Opportunity, 
published  by  The  Methodist  Book  Concern,  150  Fifth 
Avenue,  New  York  City. 


PART  IV 

PRACTICAL  EVANGELISM  CONSERVING 
RESULTS 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE 

Training  Young  Converts 

The  weakest  point  in  modern  evangelism  is  the 
failure  to  properly  care  for  and  train  those  who  have 
been  converted.  In  many  places  the  converts  are  re- 
ceived into  preparatory,  and  even  full  membership 
without  anything  being  done  for  them  in  a  construc- 
tive way  either  in  character-building  or  training  for 
service.  They  are  too  often  left  to  themselves,  and 
for  want  of  proper  training  they  either  lapse  and 
drop  out  of  the  church  altogether  or  they  become  nom- 
inal members  who  are  neither  happy  nor  useful.  At 
last  they  become  a  sort  of  insulating  zone  between  the 
real  spiritual  members  in  the  church  and  the  non- 
Christians  on  the  outside.  When  such  a  condition 
exists  it  is  difficult  to  have  a  revival  or  to  do  any  very 
successful  evangelistic  work. 

The  man  on  the  outside  says  that  he  is  as  good  as 
some  of  the  church  members  are,  and  that  may  be 
true;  but  he  does  not  always  distinguish  between  the 
real  Christian  and  the  nominal  church  member.  But 
it  will  not  do  to  be  too  hard  on  the  nominal  members ; 
others  are  as  much  or  more  to  blame  than  they  are. 
When  they  were  converted,  instead  of  being  trained  in 
Christian  life  and  service  they  were  left  to  themselves 
with  but  little  more  than  a  good  resolution  to  lead  a 

i8i 


i82  EVANGELISM 

Christian  life,  and  after  a  while  when  that  good  reso- 
lution chilled  a  little,  or  a  good  deal,  they  had  nothing 
that  was  vital  left,  so  they  remained  church  members 
without  a  Christian  experience.  The  pastor  or  the 
church  was  more  to  blame  than  they.  After  they  had 
been  members  for  years  it  was  very  hard  for  them  to 
do  first  works  over  again.  That  would  be  very  nat- 
ural, for  if  they  admitted  that  they  were  not  Christians, 
it  would  look  as  though  they  had  been  hypocrites  all 
these  years,  and  that  is  not  an  easy  admission  to  make 
when  there  was  no  intention  of  being  hypocritical. 
So  there  they  are — the  church  is  weaker  because  of 
them,  and  they  themselves  are  not  happy,  exemplary, 
or  useful.  The  whole  fault  lay  in  somebody's  failure 
to  train  them  and  help  to  ground  them  in  a  real  Chris- 
tian experience. 

The  Pastor  Should  Conduct  the  Training  Class 

It  means  a  good  deal  of  work  to  train  young  con- 
verts, and  if  the  pastor  does  it — and  he  above  all  others 
ought  to  do  it — it  will  add  greatly  to  his  work.  But 
no  work  of  his  life  will  be  more  delightful  or  worth 
while  than  to  take  a  class  of  new  converts  and  build 
them  up  in  Christian  character  and  train  them  for 
service.  No  class  of  people  that  he  will  ever  deal  with 
will  be  as  responsive  to  suggestion,  persuasion,  or  com- 
mand as  they  will. 

The  pastor  who  fails  at  this  point  fails  at  the  most 
vital  part  of  evangelism.  If  the  results  of  evangelistic 
efforts  are  not  conserved,  the  work  has  been  a  failure. 
For  even  if  a  few  hold  out,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
nothing  was  done  for  them,  those  who  lapse — and  they 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  183 

will  be  far  in  excess  of  the  others  in  the  long  run — will 
be  far  harder  to  reach  than  they  were  before.  Too 
much  stress  cannot  be  laid  on  conservation  work. 

In  the  old  days,  when  there  were  class  meetings  and 
good  class  leaders,  converts  were  put  in  their  care,  and 
received  much  valuable  training  because  they  were  put 
into  classes  with  mature  Christians  and  got  the  benefit 
of  their  wider  experience.  But  that  condition  no  longer 
exists  in  many  quarters,  and  some  one  else  better 
trained  must  do  for  them,  and  do  it  better  than 
the  old  class  meeting  did.  Those  were  the  days  of 
short  pastorates,  and  some  persons  other  than  the  pas- 
tor had  to  do  that  work,  but  now  in  the  long  pastorates 
the  pastor  ought  to  do  this  work  himself  both  for 
his  own  good  and  for  the  good  of  the  converts  them- 
selves. 

The  question  now  arises,  How  shall  this  work  be 
done?  When  the  pastor  has  any  considerable  number 
of  converts,  whether  from  a  revival  or  from  personal 
work  through  continuous  evangelism,  he  should  put 
them  into  a  class  for  training.  The  night  of  the  week 
best  suited  to  their  convenience  should  be  chosen,  for 
regularity  of  attendance  is  very  important.  Friday 
night  is  usually  the  best  night,  as  it  is  the  freest  from 
school  duties  and  most  of  the  converts  will  be  of  gram^ 
mer-  or  high-school  age. 

The  Training  Class  Program 

How  shall  the  work  begin?  What  should  be  at- 
tempted in  such  a  class?  The  first  step  in  training  is 
to  teach  them  what  it  means  to  be  a  Christian.  Many 
have  a  notion  that  joining  the  church  is  all  that  is  nee- 


i84  EVANGELISM 

essary;  others  think  that  if  the  questions  that  are  asked 
at  their  reception  are  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
the  matter  is  settled;  still  others  think  if  they  do  a  cer- 
tain set  of  duties  called  religious  work,  they  have 
met  all  the  requirements.  Now  they  should  be  taught 
that  none  of  these  things  makes  them  Christians.  They 
do  and  believe  these  things  because  they  are  Christians. 

To  be  a  Christian  is  to  be  in  right  relations  to  God 
and  man,  to  accept  and  follow  Jesus  Christ  as  personal 
Saviour  and  Lord,  to  live  a  life  of  love  and  loyalty 
to  him  and  of  unselfish  service  to  men,  to  forsake  sin 
and,  by  the  grace  of  God  freely  given,  to  bring  Hfe  up 
to  its  best  in  all  things.  As  a  result  of  that  surrender 
and  dedication  of  themselves  to  God  through  Jesus 
Christ  they  will  join  the  church,  believe  the  doctrines 
and  perform  the  duties  required  of  a  Christian.  They 
should  be  taught  that  religion  is  not  a  part  of  the  life, 
much  less  that  it  is  a  mere  personal  luxury  only  to  be 
enjoyed.  It  is  the  whple^  life  at  its  best,  expressing 
itself  in  a  joyful  loyalty  to  God  and  a  willing  service 
to  man. 

Religion,  then,  is  not  a  thing  to  be  possessed,  but  a 
personal  relation  to  be  sustained.  Men  do  not  get  re- 
ligion; they  become  religious.  This  personal  relation 
to  Christ  may  be  illustrated  under  four  general  heads, 
namely.  Teacher,  Master,  Friend,  Brother.  The  term 
"Saviour"  is  taken  for  granted,  for  he  is  already  their 
Saviour.  They  are  saved,  but  now  they  are  to  be 
trained  in  the  deeper  meaning  of  the  Christian  life.  A 
blackboard  may  be  used  so  that  the  following  plan  can 
be  put  upon  it  and  the  more  easily  and  clearly  ex- 
plained.    For  convenience  and  clearness  the  terms  by 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  185 

which  Christians  are  designated  in  the  New  Testament 
may  be  grouped  under  the  four  heads,  in  order  that 
the  different  forms  of  personal  relationship  will  be  the 
more  easily  understood  and  applied.  Now  that  Christ 
is  their  Saviour,  they  enter  his  school  to  learn  how  to 
live  the  Christian  life.  Christ  becomes  their  Teacher, 
and  under  this  head  two  terms  are  grouped. 

I    Teacher   ( disciple— John  15.  8. 
I  Believer — Acts  5.  14. 

I.  Disciple.  To  become  a  disciple  is  the  natural 
starting  point  because  it  means  ''a  pupil."  Every  mem- 
ber of  the  class  will  at  once  recognize  what  the  relation 
of  pupil  to  teacher  means,  for  they  are  all  pupils  under 
teachers.  They  now  start  in  the  school  of  Christ  to 
learn  how  to  be  Christians.  Their  first  lesson  is  on 
how  to  pray.  That  is  put  in  a  two-fold  form,  namely 
(i)  how  not  to  pray,  and  (2)  how  to  pray,  (a)  For 
the  first  see  Matt.  6.  5-8.  Here  Jesus  teaches  his  dis- 
ciples the  forms  and  the  spirit  of  prayer  which  they  are 
not  to  follow.  This  must  be  fully  explained,  so  that  no 
blunders  in  this  important  matter  will  be  committed  at 
the  beginning  of  their  Christian  life.  As  it  is  always 
easier  to  learn  a  thing  that  it  is  to  unlearn  it,  nothing 
should  be  learned  at  one  period  of  the  training  that 
would  have  to  be  unlearned  at  any  other  period.  Ac- 
cordingly, they  are  to  be  guarded  against  false  or  use- 
less methods  of  prayer. 

(b)  The  second,  or  positive,  form  of  prayer  is  found 
in  Luke  11.  1-13.  In  verses  2-4  Jesus  gives  a  model 
of  prayer  in  what  is  called  the  Lord's  Prayer.    This  is 


i86  EVANGELISM 

a  prayer  of  adoration,  confession,  and  petition.  It  is 
a  brief,  simple,  reverent,  dignified,  but  comprehensive 
prayer  and  takes  less  than  half  a  minute  to  offer. 
It  contains  the  Christian's  social  program  of  the  world 
in  epitome.  In  verses  5-8  Jesus  gives  an  illustra- 
tion of  a  prayer  of  intercession,  where  the  man  at  mid- 
night sought  help  of  one  friend  in  behalf  of  another. 
This  is  a  very  important  form  of  prayer  and  can  be 
made  attractive  to  young  converts,  for  much  was  done 
for  them  by  the  prayers  of  others.  Perhaps  they  were 
led  to  Christ  through  the  prayers  of  intercession  of- 
fered in  their  behalf  by  parents,  pastor,  or  friends. 
Intercession  is  a  very  noble  and  unselfish  form  of 
prayer  and  should  be  cultivated  far  more  than  it  is. 

In  verses  9  and  10  Jesus  teaches  the  assurance  of 
prayer.  Prayers  offered  in  the  right  spirit  and  for 
worthy  things  will  be  answered,  if  not  in  the  way  that 
they  might  be  expected  to  be  answered,  yet  in  a  better 
way,  as  God  pleases.  A  very  important  thing  to  teach 
at  this  point  is  that  there  is  as  much  love  in  God's 
answer  "No"  as  there  is  in  his  answer  "Yes."  A 
prayer  that  is  not  answered  in  our  way  is  not  always  or 
often  an  unanswered  prayer.  Examples  where  God 
said  "No"  with  all  the  love  of  his  nature  are  in  Matt. 
26.  39-44  and  2  Cor.  12.  8-10.  The  greatest  achieve- 
ment in  the  religious  life  is  to  be  able  to  say  "Yes"  to 
all  of  God's  answers  to  prayer,  whether  they  come 
as  his  "Yes"  or  "No." 

In  verses  11  and  12  Jesus  teaches  the  naturalness  of 
prayer,  and  shows  how  much  more  wise  and  good  God 
as  Father  is  than  earthly  fathers  are.  He  shows  that 
if  earthly  parents,  out  of  their  limited  resources,  are 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  187 

willing  to  supply  the  needs  of  their  children  and  will 
not  mock  them  by  giving  them  hurtful  things,  God, 
who  is  perfect  and  unlimited  in  his  resources,  will  do 
far  better  things  for  his  children.  In  verse  13  he  shows 
God's  willingness  to  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  those  who 
ask  him. 

Another  lesson  in  the  school  of  prayer  is  found  in 
John  17,  this  being  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Here  we  have 
the  example  of  Jesus  himself  at  prayer.  In  this  the 
process  and  scope  of  prayer  are  seen.  In  verses  1-5 
he  prays  for  himself.  That  is  where  all  prayer  should 
begin — getting  oneself  in  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God.  Many  prayers  fail  because  those  who  offer  them 
are  not  in  a  right  temper  to  pray,  nor  in  harmony  with 
God  or  men.  Prayer  is  to  begin  with  self.  In  verses 
6-20  he  offers  a  prayer  of  intercession  for  his  disciples, 
that  is,  his  friends.  That  is  the  natural  order  in  the 
widening  scope  of  prayer.  In  verses  21-26  he  prays 
for  the  world,  for  all  that  would  believe  on  him  through 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  That  is  the  true  climax 
of  prayer,  to  be  world  wide  in  its  scope  and  sympathy. 
This,  then,  is  the  first  lesson  learned  in  the  school  of 
Christ.  It  is  very  important  that  at  the  outset  of  the 
Christian  life  the  habit  of  intelligent  prayer  be  estab- 
lished. The  young  Christian  who  begins  his  Christian 
life  with  the  habit  of  prayer  will  not  be  apt  to  go 
astray.  This  section  on  prayer  should  be  carefully  and 
patiently  taught  till  the  pastor  is  sure  that  every  mem- 
ber of  the  class  understands  it.  The  second  lesson  in 
the  school  of  Christ  is  to  learn  what  the  will  of  God  is. 
That  brings  the  class  at  once  to  a  study  of  the  Bible, 
not  for  devotions  alone  but  also  for  a  practical  pro- 


i88  EVANGELISM 

gram  of  Christian  duty.  The  will  of  God  is  to  be 
known  through  prayer  and  the  study  of  the  Bible. 
Prayer  and  Bible  study  are  fundamental  to  the  building 
of  Christian  character,  and  the  sooner  that  young  con- 
verts are  introduced  to  these  important  matters  the 
better,  and  this  method  starts  with  these  fundamentals. 

The  following  are  suggestive  passages  on  the  will 
of  God  and  may  be  fully  explained  by  the  pastor  and 
applied  to  the  various  forms  of  duty  as  they  arise: 
John  2.  17;  4.  34;  6.  40;  7.  17;  8.  29;  9.  31.  Matt.  7. 
21-24;  i8-  1 7-  Mark  3.  35.  Acts  5.  29.  Rom.  12. 
I,  2.  I  Cor.  Chapters  12  and  14.  i  Pet.  4.  i,  2.  i 
Tim.,  Titus,  and  Heb.  10.  7.    So  much  for  the  pupil. 

2.  Believer.  The  relation  is  still  between  pupil  and 
teacher.  Here  the  pupil  believes  the  teacher  and  the 
teaching  the  same  as  in  the  school.  Little  progress 
will  be  made  by  a  pupil  unless  he  has  confidence  in  his 
teacher  and  in  the  truth  of  the  thing  taught.  But 
here  believing  takes  a  very  practical  form.  It  leads 
to  faith. 

Faith  in  the  Christian  sense  is  more  than  intellectual 
assent.  It  means  the  movement  of  our  whole  per- 
sonality up  to  Christ,  until  we  become  one  willed  with 
him.  It  means  confidence  in,  love  for,  and  obedience 
to  a  Person,  and  that  person  is  Christ.  It  is  the  assent 
of  the  intellect,  the  devotion  of  the  heart,  and  the  com- 
mitment of  the  will.  It  is  the  giving  of  oneself  in 
utter  devotion  to  Christ.  That  is  what  the  believer 
does.  Christ  is  the  Teacher  from  whom  he  is  to  learn 
and  in  whom  he  is  to  believe.  lii-.)  to 

For  the  importance  of  believing  see  the  following 
passages,  which  are  to  be  explained  and  emphasized: 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  189 

Matt.  8.  13;  9.  28.    Mark.  9.  23;  11.  22-24.    Luke  8. 
59.    John  5.  25 ;  6.  47-    Acts  13.  39. 

^_    __  (Follower,  Eph.  5.  i. 

XL  Master  ^  ^^  .       ?-     \. 

(Servant,  i.  Cor.  7.  22. 

Having  been  to  school  and  learned  from  the  Great 
Teacher  the  two  important  lessons  of  prayer  and  the 
will  of  God,  the  Teacher  now  becomes  Master,  and 
life  begins  to  take  on  practical  aspects,  so  that  the 
pupils  and  believers  now  become  followers  and  ser- 
vants.    But  personal  relations  are  still  maintained. 

I.  Follower,  It  is  a  simple  thing  to  say  to  new 
converts,  "Now  you  must  follow  Christ,"  but  it  is  not 
so  simple  to  make  them  see  what  following  Christ 
means.  "Follow  the  Leader"  is  a  game  which  boys 
easily  understand  and  can  readily  apply.  They  love  the 
leader  who  has  the  courage  to  lead  them  over  difficult 
ways.  He  is  a  constant  challenge  to  their  courage. 
They  can  easily  transfer  that  principle  of  courage- 
ous following  to  the  Christian  life.  So,  too,  anyone 
who  studies  art  or  music  will  know  what  following  a 
master  means.  To  follow  a  master  not  only  means  to 
imitate  his  example  but  to  catch  his  spirit.  The  fol- 
lower needs  to  have  sagacity  and  sympathy  like 
Christ's.  There  must  be  that  broad  generosity  and 
spirit  of  unselfishness  in  all  that  is  done  in  order  that 
Christ  in  a  sense  will  be  reproduced  in  the  lives  of  his 
followers. 

But  following  Christ  has  a  very  practical  bearing.  It 
is  the  regulative  principle  for  all  conduct.  Many  con- 
scientious young  people  are  perplexed  about  the  moral 


I90  EVANGELISM 

quality  of  certain  courses  of  conduct  and  go  to  their 
pastor  with  the  questions:  "What  harm  is  there  in 
this ?"  or,  "What  is  wrong  about  that?'*  There  is  very 
Httle  use  in  arguing  these  things  with  them,  for  the 
viewpoint  of  the  pastor  and  the  young  people  might  be 
so  different  that  no  conclusion  could  be  reached.  The 
pastor  might  silence  the  objections  of  the  young  people 
and  vanquish  them  in  argument  without  convincing 
them.  They  will  say :  "We  think  we  can  take  Christ 
with  us  here  or  there.  We  in  no  way  want  to  betray 
Christ,  nor  be  disloyal  to  him.  Why  can't  we  take  him 
with  us?"  That  may  be  very  sincerely  said.  What 
is  the  pastor  to  answer  them?  He  is  just  to  apply  the 
rule  of  following  Christ.  Jesus  put  the  law  of  disciple- 
ship  into  two  words :  "Follow  me"  (Matt.  9.  9). 

These  young  Christians  must  be  shown  what  older 
Christians  ought  not  to  forget,  that  no  one  can  take 
Christ  anywhere.  If  he  is  taken,  he  does  not  lead,  but 
follows.  He  says,  "Follow  me,"  not  "Take  me."  It 
is  where  he  leads  that  they  may  go.  If  in  their  deepest 
sincerity,  and  with  all  the  light  on  the  subject  that  they 
can  get,  they  honestly  believe  that  Christ  is  leading 
them,  not  permitting  or  ignoring  what  they  do,  but 
leading  them,  then  that  course  of  conduct  is  right  for 
them.  Conduct,  then,  falls  back  on  their  own  con- 
science under  this  rule  of  Christ,  "Follow  me,"  and  is 
no  longer  a  matter  of  a  pastor's  judgment  or  prejudice, 
permission  or  refusal.  It  is  a  matter  between  the  in- 
dividual's conscience  and  Christ.  That  is  the  way  that 
all  moral  problems  are  to  be  settled,  and  the  sooner 
our  young  Christians  learn  it,  the  sooner  the  church 
will  be  free  from  inconsistent  living  and  confused  be- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  191 

lieving.  If  they  have  to  depend  upon  the  varying 
standards  and  opinions  of  men,  they  will  never  be 
settled  in  character,  nor  will  they  ever  have  a  satis- 
factory and  convincing  rule  of  conduct.  Christ  must 
be  their  final  authority,  and  when  they  are  thoroughly 
grounded  in  the  Bible  and  brought  into  a  loving  loyalty 
to  Jesus  Christ,  they  will  have  no  difficulty  on  the  rules 
of  conduct.  Here  the  pastor  can  be  an  invaluable 
guide  to  them. 

Jesus  tells  us  in  John  7.  17  how  to  know  the  way  and 
will  of  God.  Some  passages  might  be  cited  here,  to 
show  what  following  Christ  involves  :  ( i )  See  Matt. 
22.  37-39,  Love;  (2)  19.  29-23,  Obedience;  (3)  Luke 
18.  28,  Forgiveness;  (4)  Luke  21.  19,  Sacrifice;  (5) 
Matt.  5.  48,  Character;  (6)  Matt.  28.  18-29,  Service. 
It  can  thus  be  seen  that  following  Christ  is  a  very  posi- 
tive and  practical  rule  of  conduct. 

2.  Servant.  Here  the  law  of  cooperation  with 
Christ  can  be  emphasized.  Christ  illustrates  this  life 
of  interdependence  by  the  parable  of  the  vine,  in  John 
15.  A  life  of  fruit-bearing  may  seem  a  very  indefinite 
thing  to  young  people.  What  is  meant  by  fruit-bear- 
ing? In  the  parable  of  the  vine  it  is  doing  something 
for  somebody  else.  The  only  part  of  the  vine  that  is 
not  for  itself  is  the  fruit ;  that  is  always  for  some  one 
else.  Point  out  here  the  difference  between  the  fruit 
of  the  vine  in  John  15  and  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  in 
Gal.  5.  The  fruits  of  the  Spirit  in  Gal.  5  are  the  graces 
of  Christian  character,  and  therefore  are  for  oneself. 
The  fruits  of  the  vine,  on  the  other  hand,  are  service, 
and  therefore  for  some  one  else ;  that  is,  the  fruit  of 
the  vine  is  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  issuing  in  action  for 


192  EVANGELISM 

others.  In  a  word,  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  character 
and  the  fruit  of  the  vine  is  service. 

Another  thing  that  should  be  made  clear  to  these 
young  people  is  that  they  need  not  engage  in  a  dif- 
ferent set  of  duties  because  they  are  Christians;  it 
may  be  they  cannot.  They  are  to  do  the  same  old  duties 
as  they  did  before,  only  now  they  do  them  with  a  new 
motive.  They  do  them  now  for  Jesus'  sake ;  that  gives 
them  a  new  moral  value.  Duties  are  sacred,  and  all 
work  that  is  duty  if  done  with  right  motive  can  be 
called  religious  work.  All  of  a  real  Christian's  work 
is  religious  work.  If  this  can  be  made  clear  at  the 
outset  of  the  Christian  life,  it  will  save  the  young 
Christian  much  confusion  and  make  him  feel  that  the 
Christian  life  is  not  some  mystic  thing  up  in  the  clouds, 
but  a  real,  wholesome,  and  useful  life  lived  in  the  will 
of  God  right  here  in  the  earth  to-day.  Religious  work 
is  work  religiously  done.  A  man's  religion  is  not  what 
he  has  but  what  he  is.  He  is  a  Christian  all  the  time 
or  not  at  all,  therefore  whatever  he  does  as  a  Chris- 
tian is  religious  work.  The  religious  element  is  not 
in  the  thing  but  in  the  man.  Preaching  a  sermon, 
teaching  a  Sunday  school  class,  leading  a  prayer  meet- 
ing, or  even  praying  may  be  as  secular  as  digging  a 
ditch,  carrying  a  hod,  or  plowing  a  field.  It  is  the 
motive  that  determines  the  moral  value  of  an  act. 
Whatever  is  done  for  Jesus'  sake  is  truly  religious 
work.  The  servant  of  Christ  is  to  do  all  duties  so  as  to 
please  him;  that  in  the  highest  sense  is  Christian 
living. 

Many  young  people  think  that  if  they  are  to  do 
Christian  work,  they  must  go  into  the  ministry,  or  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  193 

the  foreign  field  as  missionaries,  or  something  of  that 
sort.  These  things  are  good  to  do,  but  they  must  be 
taught  that  any  work  done  in  Jesus*s  name  and  for 
the  extension  of  his  kingdom  in  the  world  is  Christian 
service.  It  is  very  important  that  some  young  men 
should  see  not  only  the  religious  value  of  law  or  medi- 
cine or  teaching  or  making  money,  but  also  the  oppor- 
tunity through  these  different  avenues  of  service  of 
getting  the  will  of  God  done  in  the  earth.  All  legiti- 
mate and  necessary  work  is  to  be  capitalized  for  God. 
Young  people  are  to  be  trained  in  usefulness  as  well 
as  in  piety;  indeed,  that  is  poor  piety  which  is  not 
useful. 

The  servant  is  to  cooperate  with  Christ  to  get  the 
will  of  God  done  in  all  human  relations  and  activities. 
Accordingly,  Christians  must  engage  in  all  legitimate 
and  necessary  forms  of  work,  and  an  evangelism  that 
does  not  lead  to  that  kind  of  practical  training  will  not 
do  much  for  the  church  or  for  the  world.  See  the 
following  passages  that  relate  to  service:  Matt.  22. 
1-14.  Luke  14.  16-23.  Matt.  10.  1-16;  28.  18-20. 
Acts  I.  7,  8.  In  these  days,  when  life  service  is  stressed 
so  much,  it  is  well  to  get  young  converts  committed  to 
some  lifework  adapted  to  their  ability  and  ambition, 
some  work  that  is  really  worth  while.  In  this  class  is 
the  best  place  to  do  it.  It  is  not  a  matter  to  be  settled 
at  a  convention  under  the  inspiration  of  a  stirring  ad- 
dress, but  to  calmly  face  it  for  several  weeks,  in  which 
time  one  can  get  his  bearings  and  intelligently  decide 
under  the  careful  guidance  of  a  wise  and  sympathetic 
leader,  who  can  follow  up  and  help  confirm  the  de- 
cision with  such  practical  counsel   as  may  be  neces- 


194  EVANGELISM 

sary.  That  makes  religion  a  very  practical  and  work- 
able thing,  and  not  a  mere  emotion  or  a  sentimental 
ideal  of  hazy  indefiniteness. 


III.  Friend  ]  Friend  John  15.  14-15. 
(Samt,  Rom.  i.  7. 


I.  Friend.  The  personal  relation  is  still  main- 
tained, but  it  becomes  a  closer  and  more  affectionate 
relation.  To  be  on  terms  of  friendship  with  Jesus 
Christ  is  an  unspeakably  great  honor,  but  it  also  in- 
volves great  responsibilities.  Friendship  expresses,  or 
at  least  it  implies,  a  higher  confidence  and  a  finer  fel- 
lowship than  servanthood.  The  friendship  of  Jesus  is 
clearly  shown  in  Rom.  5.  6-10  and  John  15.  13;  and 
our  friendship  is  shown  for  him  in  John  15.  14.  The 
test  of  it  is  obedience.  The  test  of  Christ's  friendship 
for  man  was  sacrifice.  All  the  force  and  beauty  of 
friendship  can  be  used  by  the  leader  to  illustrate  the 
friendship  between  the  Christian  and  Christ.  Young 
people  very  strongly  resent  anything  that  looks  like 
being  untrue  to  a  friend.  To  them  it  is  cowardly  and 
ought  to  be  despised.  They  are  .at  the  friendship- 
forming  age  and  would  do  almost  anything,  however 
hard  or  painful,  for  a  friend.  Now,  if  Jesus  is  set 
forth  as  their  greatest  and  best  Friend,  and  as  such  he 
desires  and  deserves  their  truest  loyalty  and  highest 
devotion,  a  great  impression  can  be  made  on  them. 
Many  strong  illustrations  could  be  found  of  pals  in  the 
world  war  who  would  die  for  one  another.  This 
greatest  of  all  friends  died  for  them,  and  the  plea  of 
fidelity  to  him  almost  makes  itself.     Friendship  should 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  195 

be  capitalized  for  Christ.  There  is  hardly  any  more 
compelling  subject  than  friendship,  that  can  be  brought 
to  young  people. 

2.  Saint.  This  term  is  apt  to  be  greatly  misunder- 
stood. The  word  is  associated  with  gray  hairs  and 
goodness.  To  most  people,  and  especially  young  peo- 
ple, it  never  occurs  that  a  young  person  could  be  a 
saint.  But  sainthood  has  nothing  to  do  with  years. 
It  has  to  do  with  consecration.  It  is  as  possible  to  be 
a  saint  at  sixteen  as  it  is  at  eighty,  and  a  good  deal 
better  for  the  individual,  the  church,  and  the  world. 
It  sounds  strange  to  call  a  person  of  sixteen  or  eighteen 
a  saint,  but  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not  be. 
A  saint  is  a  person  wholly  devoted  to  the  will  of  God; 
that  is,  a  completely  consecrated  person.  It  might  not 
be  well  to  apply  to  young  people  a  term  that  would  be 
misunderstood  by  other  people,  but  the  point  is  that 
these  young  people  should  understand  that  they  do  not 
have  to  be  old  before  they  can  be  thoroughly  good. 
Goodness  does  not  wait  on  age.  Life  should  be  lived 
at  its  best  all  the  time.  Sainthood,  holiness,  sanctifica- 
tion  are  not  for  any  select  few,  but  for  all  Christians. 
Entire  sanctification  is  the  complete  setting  apart  of 
one's  life  to  the  service  of  Christ.  That  is  what  Paul 
means  in  i  Thess.  5.  23.  Practically  the  same  thought 
is  also  in  i  Cor.  5.  19,  20  and  10.  31;  2  Cor.  5.  17; 
6.  14-18;  7.  I,  2.    See  also  i  Pet.  i.  13-23. 

What  has  been  called  the  higher  life,  which  so  many 
people  are  afraid  of  and  think  impossible,  should  be 
shown  to  these  young  Christians  to  be  as  normal  and 
possible  to  the  soul  as  perfect  health  is  to  the  body. 
No  one  would  think  it  strange   for  young  people  (o 


196  EVANGELISM 

have  robust  bodies  and  perfect  health;  neither  should 
they  think  it  strange  if  these  young  people  should  have 
a  robust  and  healthy  soul  life.  Holiness  is  soul  health. 
It  should  be  coveted  as  much  as  bodily  health,  and 
when  the  laws  of  the  soul  are  obeyed  as  the  laws  of  the 
body  are,  they  may  have  holiness  as  a  normal  experi- 
ence. One-willed  with  Christ  is  both  holiness  and 
sainthood. 

r  Brethren,  Matt.  23.  8. 
IV.  Brother    <  Children,John  i.i2;Rom.8. 14-17 

(  Christian,  Acts  11.  26 

We  come  now  to  the  closest  relation  of  all.  We 
started  as  pupils  going  to  school,  then  became  be- 
lievers, then  followers,  then  servants,  then  friends,  then 
saints,  and  now  have  become  members  of  the  family  of 
God  under  the  names  "brethren"  and  "children."  It 
will  not  be  difficult  to  explain  the  privileges,  protec- 
tions, benefits,  and  responsibilities  of  family  life. 
These  young  Christians  easily  can  see  that  it  is  as 
much  of  an  obligation  to  protect  the  family  name  and 
honor  of  God  as  it  is  to  protect  their  own  family  name 
and  honor.  This  gives  a  good  opportunity  to  train 
them  in  fidelity  and  devotion  to  the  church,  which  is 
God's  home.  All  that  pertains  to  the  church,  the  Sab- 
bath, the  Bible,  the  service  should  be  reverently  used. 
Here  it  is  well  to  teach  them  that  they  came  into  the 
family  of  God  by  a  spiritual  birth  just  as  they  did  into 
their  own  family  by  natural  birth.  So  the  pastor  needs 
to  explain  John  3.  3-6.  See  also  i  John  3.  2.  They 
need  to  realize  that  now  they  belong  to  a  royal  family. 
Jesus  is  King.     He  is  more — he  is  Saviour.     He  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  197 

more — he  is  Brother.  That  gives  a  new  meaning  to 
"Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven" ;  praying  that  prayer 
is  speaking  in  terms  of  family  relation. 

All  the  above  relations  are  involved  in  the  term 
''Christian."  By  this  time  these  young  people  begin 
to  see  how  much  more  it  means  to  be  a  Christian  than 
to  be  a  church  member.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  a 
Christian;  no  life  is  so  dignified,  sacred,  manifold,  use- 
ful, and  happy  as  the  Christian  life;  and  young  people 
ought  to  be  made  to  see  that  as  early  as  possible,  and 
they  would  then  understand  that  it  is  a  great  principle 
to  live  by  rather  than  a  sort  of  security  to  die  by.  If 
young  Christians  are  grounded  in  these  fundamentals 
at  the  beginning  of  their  religious  life,  the  danger  of 
falling  away  will  be  almost  negligible.  They  need  to 
be  built  into  the  church,  where  they  can  grow  and 
work  while  this  holy  enthusiasm  and  the  high  ideals  of 
youth  are  at  their  best.  Whatever  pastor  takes  a  class 
of  young  converts  through  several  weeks  or  months  of 
such  training  will  have  one  of  the  richest  experiences 
of  his  life. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS 

The  second  step  in  the  training  should  be  to  give 
these  young  Christians  a  doctrinal  basis  for  their  re- 
ligious experience  to  insure  its  order  and  stability.  But 
that  doctrinal  basis  must  be  biblical.  It  would  be  use- 
less at  this  early  stage  of  their  training  to  do  more 
than  just  direct  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  there 
are  certain  fundamental  doctrines  that  are  accepted  by 
Christian  people  with  which  they  should  be  familiar 
and  to  which  they  should  give  their  intelligent  consent 
when  they  come  members  of  the  church.  Any  elab- 
orate teaching  in  systematic  theology  in  this  class 
would  not  be  necessary,  as  they  would  not  be  prepared 
either  intellectually  or  religiously  for  such  a  course. 
The  training  must  neither  be  too  elementary  nor  too 
advanced,  as  courses  for  preparatory  members  some- 
times are,  but  adapted  as  nearly  to  the  capacity  of  the 
age  and  ability  of  the  class  as  if  it  were  a  class  in  day 
school.  So  here  no  formulated  doctrines  will  be  set 
forth,  but  only  a  mere  statement  of  some  of  the  more 
fundamental  doctrines  and  some  of  the  great  passages 
of  Scripture  out  of  which  they  spring,  the  idea  being 
to  direct  the  attention  of  these  young  people  to  a  study 
of  the  Bible  rather  than  to  any  system  of  theology. 
The  doctrines  may  be  discussed  very  simply,  so  as  to 
acquaint  the  class  with  terms  which  are  so  often  used 
in  the  pulpit  and  elsewhere,  without  any  clear  explana- 

198 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  199 

tion.  The  only  attempt  here  will  be  to  show  how  the 
Bible  deals  with  those  great  truths  which  are  put  into 
doctrinal  form  by  the  church. 

The  following  discussion  deals  only  with  seed 
thoughts  and  suggestions,  just  an  introduction  to  a 
more  complete  study  later  on  which  might  be  conducted 
in  an  adult  Bible  class  or  some  such  organization. 

I.  The  Doctrine  of  Sin 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  deal  with  any  theory  of 
the  origin  of  sin.  It  is  necessary,  however,  to  deal 
with  the  fact  of  sin,  its  subtleties,  disabilities,  and  dan- 
^  gers.  The  battle  royal  of  life  is  with  sin.  It  is  as 
universal  as  man.  It  begins  its  siege  of  and  assault 
on  life  very  early.  It  haunts  and  tempts  man  until 
death.  It  dims  the  vision  of  God  in  the  soul.  It  under- 
mines moral  health,  it  lowers  ideals,  weakens  princi- 
ples, vitiates  tastes,  silences  prayer,  closes  the  Bible, 
destroys  the  capacity  for  life's  best  things,  breaks 
friendship,  chills  enthusiasm,  turns  love  into  hate,  bru- 
talizes strength,  defeats  life's  best  endeavor,  blasts 
hope,  wrecks  one's  future,  makes  life  intolerable  and 
death  terrible.  Sin,  when  it  has  done  its  awful  work, 
brings  forth  a  death  which  is  separation  from  God  and 
the  wreck  of  the  soul.  To  young  people  sin  does  not 
seem  very  awful,  because  few  of  them  have  noticed 
its  finished  work,  and  most  of  them  fail  to  reckon  with 
sin's  power,  so  they  think  that  they  can  sin  a  little  and 
be  none  the  worse  for  it.  Indeed,  some  good  young 
people  think  that  the  temporary  indulgence  of  some 
forms  of  sin  adds  spice  to  life  and  makes  them  the 
more  interesting.     They  are  afraid  to  be  thought  pru- 


200  EVANGELISM 

dish,  so  they  are  apt  to  take  chances,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  flirt  with  sin.  They  do  not  understand  its  subtlety 
or  power.  In  their  early  experience  they  need  to  be 
informed  of  the  danger  of  having  anything  to  do  with 
sin.  Instead  of  seeing  how  near  they  can  come  to  sin 
and  escape  its  consequences,  they  ought,  rather,  to  see 
how  far  they  can  keep  from  it. 

Sin  showed  itself  in  all  its  naked  horror  when  it  had 
its  way,  when  it  lynched  Jesus.  To  put  holiness  and 
perfect  and  unselfish  love  to  the  cross  shows  that  unre- 
strained sin  scruples  at  nothing.  Young  people  need 
to  see  that  sin  is  all  of  a  piece.  Any  sin  may  lead  to 
all  sin.  Sin  is  the  black  shadow  that  falls,  not  only 
across  the  whole  Bible  but  also  across  the  history  of  the 
race.  Wars,  pestilences,  famines,  crimes,  and  miser- 
ies follow  in  its  train.  These  young  people  are  to  be 
taught  to  have  a  horror  of  sin  and  to  avoid  with  firm 
resolution  all  its  forms  and  defilements.  They  need  to 
be  taught  how  subtle  and  plausible  temptation  is,  yet 
how  dangerous.  The  law  of  temptation  is  clearly  set 
forth  by  James  in  the  first  chapter.  Seeing,  desiring, 
taking  is  the  order  of  progress  in  temptation;  that  is, 
the  whole  personality  is  involved — the  intellect,  the 
emotions,  and  the  will.  That  chapter  will  bear  a  care- 
ful study  with  great  profit.  The  principle  could  be 
thus  stated :  "I  saw,  I  coveted,  I  took."  The  tempta- 
tion of  Christ  in  the  wilderness  involved  the  same 
principle.  See  Matt.  4.  i-ii;  Luke  4.  2-13.  The 
temptation  in  the  garden.  Gen.  3,  took  the  same  form ; 
so  also  in  the  case  of  Achan,  Joshua  7.  20,  28.  See  the 
same  thing  in  the  temptation  of  David,  2 ;  Sam.  11.  2-4. 
Temptation   is   dangerous   to   the   unwary   because   it 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  201 

seems  so  plausible,  so  natural  and  right  that  many 
people  yield  before  they  realize  its  danger,  and  do  so 
with  no  intention  of  sinning. 

The  consequences  of  sin  are  hidden  under  the 
glamour  of  temptation.  *'Sin,  when  it  is  finished  up 
bringeth  forth  death"  (James  i.  15).  Paul  says  that 
the  wages  of  sin  is  death  (Rom.  6.  2^),  and  in  i  Cor. 
15.  56  he  says  that  the  sting  of  death  is  sin.  Moral 
death  passed  upon  man  because  of  sin.  Death  was 
the  penalty  of  Achan's  sin.  Indeed,  the  whole  trend 
of  Scripture  teaching  is  that  sin  brings  death,  the 
only  real  death,  which  is  separation  from  God.  That 
is  both  death  and  hell. 

The  refuge  for  the  tempted  is  found  in  i  Cor.  10. 
13.  Heb.  4.  14-16.  Heb.  2.  17,  18;  also  6.  17-20. 
In  Isa.  I,  Micah  6,  Amos  5,  Mai.  3,  and  Rev.  3.  17, 
18,  sin  puts  itself  forth  under  the  forms  of  piety;  but 
in  Rom.  i.  18-32,  3.  18-23,  and  Gal.  5.  19-22  sin  is 
shown  in  all  its  hideous  nakedness  and  deforming 
power. 

The  exposition  of  these  various  passages  and  an 
explanation  of  the  law  of  temptation  will  safeguard 
these  young  people  against  the  dangers  to  which  they 
are  often  and  easily  exposed. 

The  distinction  between  sin  and  sins  needs  to  be 
made  clear,  or  there  will  likely  be  much  confusion 
which  may  lead  to  grave  errors.  Men  are  fairly  well 
agreed  as  to  what  sins  are — such  as  falsehood,  theft, 
profanity,  lust,  dishonesty,  drunkenness,  murder,  etc. 
There  will  be  little  difference  of  opinion  here,  and  if  a 
person  is  not  guilty  of  any  of  these  and  other  sins 
like  them,  he  thinks  that  he  is  not  a  sinner.    But  what 


202  EVANGELISM 

makes  a  man  a  sinner  is  something  that  Hes  back  of 
these  things  and  gives  rise  to  them.  Sin  is  not  an 
act  but  an  attitude,  and  that  attitude  leads  to  all  the 
acts  which  men  call  sins.  There  is  little  use  trying 
to  correct  the  acts  as  long  as  the  attitude  remains  un- 
changed. 

What  is  that  attitude?  It  is  an  attitude  of  rebellion 
to  the  rule  of  God  in  the  soul,  to  the  kingship  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  life.  That  rebellion  may  be  passive  or 
active;  that  is,  it  may  ignore  God  or  defy  him.  The 
passive  may  be  more  or  less  unconscious;  that  is,  it 
may  not  be  deliberate  or  intentional,  but  it  none  the  less 
leaves  God  out  of  the  life  by  feeling  no  need  of  him  or 
giving  no  place  to  him.  The  other  attitude  is  one  of 
hostility,  where  the  rights  of  God  are  not  recognized 
and  the  laws  of  God  are  defied.  That  type  of  sinner 
is  called  the  ungodly.  The  thing  to  be  borne  in  mind  is 
that  all  who  exclude  God  from  the  life,  or  those  who 
fail  to  take  him  into  the  life,  are  sinners  in  the  biblical 
sense.  So  that  a  person  may  be  very  circumspect  in 
the  sight  of  men  and  yet  be  a  sinner  in  the  sight  of  God. 
That  needs  to  be  made  very  clear,  or  else  some  will  rest 
in  their  good  works  to  men  and  neglect  their  right  rela- 
tion to  God.  For  suggestive  passages  on  failure  of 
good  works  alone  to  save  see  Matt.  7.  21-23  5  Eph.  2.  8, 
9;  Rom.  3.  20.  In  a  word,  sin  is  a  wrong  relation  to 
God,  and  from  that  wrong  relation  all  the  sins  against 
God  and  man  proceed. 

2.  The  Doctrine  of  Repentance 

Most  people  have  an  erroneous  notion  of  just  what 
is  involved  in  repentance.     That  is  especially  true  of 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  203 

young  people.  They  think  that  being  sorry  for  doing 
a  wrong  thing  is  all  that  there  is  to  repentance.  That 
may  mean  much  or  little  according  to  what  is  meant 
by  being  sorry.  Some  are  sorr)/  not  because  of  the 
thing  done  but  because  of  the  unhappy  outcome  of  it. 
That  was  the  repentance  of  Judas,  as  we  shall  see 
below.  The  old  definition  of  repentance,  that  it  is  a 
godly  sorrow  for  sin,  is  not  adequate  unless  the  godly 
sorrow  is  made  radical  and  inclusive  enough  to  cover 
much  more  than  is  ordinarily  included  in  the  word 
"sorrow."  To  most  people  repentance  is  a  revulsion  of 
feeling;  but  unless  it  goes  deeper  than  that  it  will  have 
no  regenerative  force. 

Forgiveness  is  granted  on  the  ground  of  repentance. 
But  forgiveness  does  not  necessarily  follow  a  revulsion 
of  feeling  if  that  is  all  there  is  to  it.  Judas  had  a 
revulsion  of  feeling  great  enough  to  drive  him  to  sui- 
cide, but  there  is  nothing  in  the  New  Testament  to 
show  that  he  was  forgiven.  No  matter  what  we  may 
think  took  place  in  the  other  world,  the  record  is  silent 
on  any  forgiveness  in  this  world,  and  it  is  not  safe  to 
presume  on  the  guesses  of  what  might  take  place  in 
another  world. 

There  are  two  words  in  the  New  Testament  trans- 
lated "repent."  One  means  a  revulsion  of  feeling;  it 
means  to  be  sorry  or  to  rue  it.  That  is  the  word  used 
where  Judas  "repented  himself"  (see  Matt.  2y.  3).  He 
rued  it,  but  he  did  not  go  to  the  person  he  injured  to 
make  things  right,  and  so  his  revulsion  of  feeling 
counted  for  nothing.  The  other  word  goes  far  deeper 
and  means  a  change  of  mind,  carrying  with  it  a  right- 
about-face in  the  life.     It  is  the  word  which  Jesus  used 


204  EVANGELISM 

in  Matt.  4.  17  and  12.  41;  Luke  13.  3.  5;  I5-  7;  i?-  3; 
and  is  used  in  Acts  2.  38;  8.  22\  and  in  Rev.  2.  5;  3. 
3;  16.  9.  The  change  which  these  passages  presup- 
pose is  far  more  radical  than  change  of  feeling  alone. 
It  means  a  complete  change  in  the  whole  life. 

One  of  the  dangers  of  the  high-pressure  revivals  is 
that  the  conversions  which  occur  under  them  will  be 
too  much  emotional  and  too  little  rational  and  voli- 
tional. When  they  are,  they  are  not  apt  to  be  very 
stable  or  vigorous.  A  conversion  is  of  little  moment 
that  does  not  change  the  whole  character.  Conversion 
is  to  give  the  life  a  new  quality,  a  new  value,  a  new 
motive,  and  a  new  direction.  We  have  seen  that  sin  is  a 
wrong  attitude  toward  God.  Now,  no  matter  how  great 
the  revulsion  of  feeling  may  be,  if  that  wrong  attitude  is 
not  changed  into  a  right  attitude  by  a  complete  change 
of  mind  and  will,  no  forgiveness  nor  moral  reconstruc- 
tion can  issue  on  that  kind  of  a  repentance;  in  other 
words,  God  will  not  accept  the  repentance  of  any  sin 
that  a  man  does  not  intend  to  give  up.  True  repentance, 
by  changing  the  mind  and  attitude,  turns  the  life  around 
from  indifference  or  hostility  to  God  to  a  loving  obe- 
dience and  loyalty  to  him.  That  is  the  human  side  of 
conversion;  indeed,  it  is  conversion  which  is  turning 
around.  Then  God  meets  that  turned  life  with  his 
forgiveness  and  grace;  that  is  the  divine  side  of  con- 
version. So  that  God  and  man  cooperate  in  the  work 
of  conversion.  The  human  side,  or  the  turning  around, 
is  called  conversion,  and  the  divine  side,  which  is  the 
recreation  into  spiritual  excellence,  is  called  regenera- 
tion. It  is  important  to  explain  very  carefully  all  that 
is  involved  in  repentance,  for  some  of  the  members  of 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  205 

the  class  that  are  being  taught  may  fall  away  under 
provocation  or  through  indifference;  and  if  they  should 
be  so  unfortunate,  they  ought  to  know  the  way  back. 
Some  may  be  held  to  what  they  think  is  conversion 
only  by  the  power  of  a  good  resolution  because  they 
did  not  understand  repentance,  and  their  real  conver- 
sion under  better  light  may  take  place  in  the  class. 
Every  point  in  the  process  of  salvation  is  to  be  made 
as  clear  as  possible,  so  that  no  one  will  base  his  Chris- 
tian life  on  a  false  premise.  Therefore  plenty  of  time 
is  to  be  taken  in  the  training  class.  It  is  far  better  to 
keep  them  in  training  for  two  or  three  years  than  to  re- 
ceive them  into  full  membership  ill  informed  or  badly 
grounded  in  the  Christian  faith  and  experience. 

3.  The  Doctrine  of  Redemption 

The  difference  between  redemption  and  salvation 
needs  to  be  made  clear,  so  that  the  two  things  will  not 
be  confused  in  their  minds.  All  men  are  redeemed, 
but  all  men  are  not  saved.  Redemption  is  the  provision 
which  God  makes  for  man  whether  man  cooperates  or 
not.  Redemption  is  wholly  a  work  of  God.  Salva- 
tion is  redemption  appropriated  by  man  in  cooperation 
with  God.  Salvation  is  a  work  of  God  and  man  to- 
gether. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  study  to  trace  the  rising 
and  expanding  idea  of  redemption  from  the  Exodus 
down  to  the  time  of  Christ.  A  brief  outline  could  be 
made  of  the  main  features  in  the  development  of  the 
redemptive  idea,  so  that  the  class  could  see  at  a  glance 
the  Old  Testament  preparation  for  the  work  of  Christ. 


2o6  EVANGELISM 

That  would  require  an  outline  study  of  Exodus,  Levit- 
icus, Numbers,  Deuteronomy,  Isaiah,  Amos,  Micah, 
Hosea,  Joel,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel.  All  that  would  be 
necessary  for  beginners  would  be  to  select  the  leading 
points  of  the  redemptive  teaching  of  these  books  and 
arrange  them  so  that  immature  Bible- students  could 
see  their  bearing  on  the  work  of  Christ. 

4.  The  Doctrine  of  Salvation 

The  key  chapter  to  be  studied  here  is  John  3.  Christ 
calls  salvation  the  birth  from  above,  but  he  makes  it 
clear  that  what  he  means  is  a  life  lived  according  to 
the  will  of  God,  and  that  he  had  come  to  live  and  die, 
to  give  man  the  spiritual  power  to  live  such  a  life. 
He  came  to  give  man  a  clean  heart,  a  strong  will,  a 
noble  love,  a  right  motive,  a  mastery  over  sin,  and  a 
right  relation  to  God  and  man. 

Some  suggestive  passages  to  study  with  the  class 
and  interpret  to  them  on  the  subject  of  salvation  are : 
Isa.  55.  7-9;  44.  22;  52.  3.  Psa.  34.  22;  41;  49.  15; 
130.  7,  8.  Luke  I.  68;  24.  21.  John  3.  1-22.  Rom. 
Chapters  7,  8;  Gal.  3.  13.  Eph.  4.  30.  Col.  i.  14.  Heb. 
7.  25;  9.  12.  Titus  2.  14.  I  Pet.  I.  18.  These  could  be 
assigned  to  the  class  to  look  up  and  study  and  report  on. 
Then  their  true  interpretations  could  be  given.  This 
study  could  be  related  back  to  the  first  section  of  the 
study  on  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  life.  The  saved 
person  is  the  Christian.  Every  man  is  a  redeemed 
man,  but  the  man  who  has  translated  God's  provision 
of  redemption  for  him  into  personal  experience  is  a 
Christian. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  207 

5.  Justification 

Justification  and  righteousness  are  so  nearly  inter- 
changeable terms  in  the  New  Testament  that  no  dis- 
tinction between  them  need  be  pointed  out.  Sin,  as 
we  have  pointed  out,  was  man's  wrong  relation  to  God, 
and  justification  rights  that  wrong  relation.  It  is  the 
declaration  that  a  right  relation  between  God  and  man 
has  been  established.  Man  has  laid  down  his  arms 
and  ceased  to  be  at  war  with  the  will  of  God.  God 
now  makes  terms  of  peace  with  him.  That  peace  was 
made  through  Christ,  so  Christ  becomes  man's  ''Right- 
eouser."  Man  is  brought  to  Christ's  standing  before 
God.  This  can  be  made  clear  by  way  of  illustration. 
When  nations  that  have  been  at  war  enter  into  peace 
relations,  then  all  international  dealings,  political  and 
commercial,  are  reestablished  as  though  nothing  had 
happened;  that  is,  right  international  relations  have 
been  restored;  and  so  it  is  in  justification — right  rela- 
tions between  God  and  man  are  restored,  and  every- 
thing now  proceeds  on  a  peace  basis. 

Justification  is  a  different  way  of  putting  conversion. 
Both,  fundamentally,  mean  the  same  thing — getting 
into  right  relations  to  God  by  getting  rid  of  sin,  and 
entering  upon  a  program  of  service,  by  which  the  will 
of  God  is  done  in  the  life.  Conversion,  regeneration, 
justification,  sanctification  have  so  often  been  taught  as 
if  they  were  so  many  distinct  and  separate  acts  or  ex- 
periences that  many  people  have  been  greatly  confused 
by  the  use  of  the  terms.  Christian  experience  is  a 
unit,  and  not  a  set  of  water-tight  compartment  experi- 
ences, which  have  little  to  do  with  one  another.     All  of 


2o8  EVANGELISM 

those  terms  only  express  different  aspects  of  the  one 
experience,  and  may  and  ought  to  exist  simultane- 
ously in  the  Christian  life  from  the  beginning.  The 
life  that  is  in  right  relation  to  God  and  to  man,  that 
has  Christ's  standing  before  God,  and  has  open  access 
to  God  through  Christ,  and  therefore  has  peace  with 
God  and  happiness  in  God,  is  a  complete  Christian 
life;  and  that  is  the  justified  life  according  to  Paul 
(see  Rom,  5).  It  will  be  very  profitable  to  fully  ex- 
pound that  chapter  on  the  nature,  privileges,  and  bene- 
fits of  justification. 

6.  Faith 

That  was  explained  above  as  confidence  in,  love  for, 
and  obedience  to,  a  Person,  and  that  person  Christ.  It 
is  very  practical  and  simple.  It  is  not  a  mysterious 
something  that  takes  possession  of  them  as  they  come 
into  the  experience  of  the  Christian  faith.  They  need 
to  see  that  if  they  believed,  loved,  and  obeyed  Christ 
as  they  do  their  mothers,  they  would  be  nearly  ideal 
Christians.  Christian  faith  is  the  whole  personality 
going  out  to  Christ  in  trust,  love,  and  obedience.  It 
thus  becomes  a  practical  rule  of  conduct  that  can  be 
applied  to  all  things  all  the  time.  It  is  a  very  workable 
thing.  Christ  is  absolutely  dependable.  He  never 
makes  a  mistake;  he  is  always  worthy  of  the  most 
devoted  love  and  most  unquestioning  obedience.  When 
that  is  made  clear  faith  will  come  down  out  of  the 
clouds,  where  it  is  to  most  young  people,  and  become 
a  very  simple  and  concrete  rule  of  practice.  A  good 
set  of  passages  for  the  study  of  faith  in  its  different 
aspects  is:  Matt.  15.  28;  17.  20,  21.     Mark  i.  15;  9. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  209 

2y,  16.  16.  Luke  7.  9.  John  3.  36;  5.  24;  6.  47. 
Acts  26.  18.  Rom.  I.  17;  3.  21,  22;  4.  1-5;  5.  1-5. 
Eph.  2.  18.    Heb.  11.    James  2.  21-23. 

The  home,  business,  society,  and  civiHzation  rest 
on  men's  confidence  in  one  another.  If  they  had  the 
same  confidence  in  the  infalHble  God  that  they  do  in 
falHble  men,  and  acted  upon  it,  the  Kingdom  of  God 
would  be  estabHshed  in  the  earth.  ReHgious  faith 
must  be  explained  to  these  young  Christians  in  terms  of 
common  confidence,  that  they  may  get  hold  of  it  and 
practice  it. 

7.    SONSHIP 

This  takes  us  back  to  the  last  section  of  the  first  step 
in  the  training,  to  where  the  pupil  is  received  ijito  the 
family,  and  also  to  the  discussion  of  salvation,  which 
Christ  calls  the  birth  from  above.  The  things  to  be 
stressed  are  the  privileges  and  responsibilities  of  mem- 
bership in  the  family  of  God.  To  these  young  people, 
the  church  will  best  express  the  idea  of  the  household 
of  God  on  the  earth.  Appropriate  passages  for  this 
discussion  and  for  class  study  are:  Matt.  5.  9-45;  i3- 
38-43.  Luke  16.  8.  John  3.  3,  8;  8.  36;  12.  36.  Rom. 
6.  17,  18,  22;  8.  16-18,  21.  I  Cor.  2.  II,  12;  3.  21-23. 
Gal.  3.  26;  4.  5 ;  6.  13.  Eph.  5.  i,  8.  Phil.  2.  15.  Col. 
2.  2.  I  Thess.  5.  5.  Heb.  6.  11 ;  10.  22.  James  i.  18, 
25.    I  Pet.  2.  16.     I  John  I.  1-4;  3.  2,  3. 

8.  The  Doctrine  of  Holiness 

There  is  no  doctrine  of  the  Christian  faith  that  has 
been  so  perverted  by  well-meaning  but  for  the  most 
part  ill-informed  people  as  this.    It  has  been  made  so 


2IO  EVANGELISM 

obnoxious  and  some  of  its  professors  have  been  so 
intolerant  that  few  people  want  to  be  known  as  holy 
people.  So  the  church  has  lost  immeasurably  both  in 
its  joy  and  power  because  its  highest  spiritual  state  has 
not  been  sought  or  attained  by  the  majority  of  its  mem- 
bers. Holiness  must  be  rescued  from  this  misunder- 
standing and  given  the  place  to  which  it,  as  the  climax 
of  Christian  character,  is  entitled.  It  can  be  set  forth 
in  outline,  and  the  pastor  can  make  the  steps  clear  as 
he  goes  along.  If  religious  experience  were  expressed 
in  terms  of  education,  then  to  discount  holiness  would 
be  like  discounting  the  higher  education  and  being  con- 
tent with  the  training  of  the  grammar  school  or  at 
most  the  high  school.  Holiness  to  the  spiritual  life 
is  what  a  university  education  is  to  the  intellectual  life, 
what  perfect  health  is  to  the  physical  life:  it  is  the 
highest  culture  and  health  of  the  soul.  That  should  be 
made  very  plain  to  the  young  people  who  are  to  be  the 
church  of  to-morrow.  They  should  not  be  robbed  of 
the  highest  Christian  excellence  because  of  the  extrava- 
gance of  a  few  people. 

Holiness  is  not  a  thing  to  get  at  a  meeting  as  one 
might  get  an  article  at  a  store.  It  is  not  a  detached 
thing  which  one  might  easily  get  and  just  as  easily  lose. 
It  is  not  an  obtainment  but  an  attainment.  We  do  not 
get  holiness;  we  become  holy.  Holiness  may  be  lost 
just  as  health  may  be,  and  in  very  much  the  same  way 
— by  carelessness,  neglect,  or  sin. 

When  the  soul  is  well  cared  for  as  to  its  food  and 
exercise,  holiness  will  be  as  natural  and  inevitable  as 
health  is  when  the  body  is  well  cared  for  as  to  its  food 
and  exercise.     Holiness,   therefore,   instead  of  being 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  211 

shunned  should  be  most  earnestly  sought  after,  and  it 
will  be  when  it  is  presented  in  all  its  attractiveness  and 
power.  This  is  the  pastor's  privilege  and  task  in  his 
training  class. 

What  now  are  the  steps  by  which  the  pastor  is  to 
make  clear  the  doctrine  or  the  experience  of  holiness? 

I.  The  Preparation  for  Holiness 

This  is  the  preparation  or  the  attitude  of  mind  that 
will  make  the  experience  of  holiness  either  welcome  or 
possible;  and  it  is  set  forth  in  i  Pet.  i.  13-17.  (i) 
Get  ready.  "Gird  up,"  verse  13.  (2)  Be  sober,  that 
is,  be  well  poised  or  steady,  verse  13.  (3)  Be  hopeful 
to  the  end,  verse  13.  In  verse  14,  two  things  are  to  be 
noticed,  (a)  Obedience,  (b)  Consistency.  See  for 
a  similar  thought  Rom.  12.  2.  In  verse  17,  Rever- 
ence. These  then  represent  the  attitude  of  mind  toward 
holiness  before  its  attainment  is  possible.  Readiness, 
steadiness,  hopefulness,  obedience,  consistency,  and  rev- 
erence. This  should  all  be  made  as  clear  and  simple 
and  important  as  possible. 

2.  The  Call  to  Holiness 

Under  this  head  there  is  an  opportunity  to  discuss 
the  importance  of  a  life-service  decision,  and  show 
that  every  person  should  have  some  definite  Christian 
service  in  view  as  a  career.  But  the  important  thing 
here  is  to  show  that  whether  all  people  have  a  definite 
call  to  a  career  or  not,  all  people  are  definitely  called 
to  character ;  that  is,  all  are  called  to  be  holy.    Here  a 


212  EVANGELISM 

study  of  the  following  passages  will  be  helpful :  Lev. 
II.  44,  45.  Jer.  31.  ^s,  34-  Ezek.  36.  25.  Matt.  5. 
48.  Rom.  I.  17;  8.  28-30.  I  Cor.  i.  2.  2  Cor.  6.  17, 
18.  Eph.  I.  4.  I  Thess.  4.  7.  Heb.  12.  14.  i  Pet. 
I.  2. 

3.  The  Obligation  to  be  Holy 

It  is  not  mere  caprice  on  the  part  of  God  to  call  men 
to  holiness.  The  call  is  grounded  in  the  nature  of 
things. 

1.  It  is  reasonable.  God  is  holy  and  to  be  in  fellow- 
ship with  him  man  must  be  holy.  There  can  be  no  true 
fellowship  between  uncongenial  people.  It  is  reason- 
able, then,  for  God  to  call  men  to  holiness.  A  study 
may  be  made  of  the  following  passages:  i  Cor.  i.  2. 
Eph.  I.  4.  Phil.  I.  I ;  4.  21.  i  Thess.  5.  23,  24.  2 
Thess.  2.  12. 

2.  It  is  right  to  be  holy.  God  has  a  right  to  de- 
mand it.  That  right  is  grounded  in  three  things : 
(i)  Creatorship,  (2)  Redemption,  (3)  Fatherhood. 
God  rests  his  claim  to  man's  holiness  on  these  things. 

4.  The  Possibility  of  Holiness 

Some  regard  it  as  an  ideal  which  may  be  looked  up 
to  in  this  life,  but  can  only  be  realized  in  some  other  life ; 
that  is,  the  practice  of  holiness  in  this  world  is  regarded 
as  impossible.  But  obligation  and  duty  never  extend 
to  the  impossible.  It  is  because  holiness  is  possible  that 
God  requires  it.  When  Jesus  says,  ''Follow  me,"  he  is 
calling  men  to  holiness.  See  Matt.  5.  48;  19.  21. 
Rom.  8.  I,  23-29;  6.  11-23;  12-  i>  2.  2  Cor.  3.  18. 
Col.  I. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  213 

5.  The  Content  of  Holiness 

Fundamentally,  it  means  separation,  but  not  separa- 
tion in  space,  but  in  the  quality  of  character.  It  is 
(i)  separation  from  sin,  (2)  separation  to  God,  (3) 
separation  for  service.  It  would  therefore  include  the 
three  terms  (i)  separation  from  sin,  conversion;  (2) 
separation  to  God,  hoHness;  (3)  separation  for  serv- 
ice, sanctification.  The  following  are  helpful  pas- 
sages: Psa.  I,  15,  24,  50,  139.  Isa.  I.  Amos  5.  Mi- 
cah  6.  Ezek.  26.  Jer.  31.  i  Cor.  i.  30.  Rom.  6.  19, 
20.  I  Thess.  4,  3-7.  2  Thess.  2.  1-3.  Heb.  12.  14. 
2  Cor.  I.  12;  7.  I.  Eph.  4.  24.  In  these  passages  we 
have  the  words  "holiness"  and  "sanctification."  The 
same  thought  is  found  in  i  Cor.  9.  13  and  2  Tim.  3. 
15,  as  "strength"  and  "reverence";  in  Heb.  7.  23,  as 
"piety";  in  Phil.  4.  8  and  i  Tim.  2.  2,  as  "honor"  or 
"dignity";  in  i  John  3.  3,  as  "purity."  Putting  them 
together,  the  holy  person  is  one  who  is  strong,  reverent, 
honorable,  dignified,  pious,  pure,  holy.  That  is  so  far 
from  the  experience  that  some  ranters  have  that  it  be- 
longs in  a  different  world.  Holiness  must  be  saved  to 
the  young  life  of  the  church. 

6.  The  Attainment  of  Holiness 

I.  Separation.  Paul  discusses  this  in  2  Cor.  6.  14- 
18.  (i)  No  yokefellowship  with  moral  contradictories. 
See  Deut.  22.  9,  10.  (2)  No  mingling  of  good  and 
evil.  The  issue  must  be  clear  cut.  No  averaging  up. 
(3)  No  communion  of  light  and  darkness ;  that  is,  there 
is  to  be  no  twilight  experience.  (4)  No  symphony  with 
Christ  and  Satan.    They  cannot  be  harmonized.     (5) 


214  EVANGELISM 

No  mixing  of  faith  and  unbelief.  (6)  No  serving  of 
opposite  masters.  See  Matt.  6.  24.  (7)  No  place  in 
a  holy  temple  for  idols. 

2.  Cooperation.  God  and  man  together  work  out 
salvation  in  its  completeness,  which  is  holiness.  See 
Phil.  2.  12,  13. 

3.  Consecration.  All  one  has  and  is  must  "be  given 
over  to  God.    See  Rom.  12.  i  and  i  Thess.  5.  23. 

4.  The  Scope  of  Holiness.  Holiness  extends  to  the 
whole  life  in  all  manner  of  conduct.  Holiness  is  not  a 
personal  luxury  which  is  to  be  used  in  a  few  rare  expe- 
riences of  life.  It  is  life  at  its  best  operating  in  the 
whole  program  of  activity. 

"The  Baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit,"  as  it  is  called,  and 
is  sometimes  used  as  a  term  equivalent  to  "holiness," 
is  not  the  same  thing.  Holiness  is  a  complete  Chris- 
tian life,  or  perfect  soul  health.  The  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  a  special  endument  of  power  for  a 
special  kind  of  service,  witnessing,  or,  as  we  would  put 
it  to-day,  soul-winning.  See  the  book  of  Acts  i.  8;  2. 
1-4,  38,  39;  4.  8,  13,  31,  33;  5.  32,  33;  6.  5,  8;  7.  55; 
8.  15-19,  29-40;  10.  38,  44-46;  II.  16-18;  13.  2-4;  19. 
1-6;  20.  28.  See  also  Joel  2.  28.  John  14.  26;  15.  26, 
27;  16.  13-15. 

The  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  study  by  itself. 
Holiness  can  be  summed  up  in  this  way:  (i) 
It  is  possible  as  an  attainment.  (2)  It  is  ef- 
ficient as  an  equipment.  (3)  It  is  satisfactory  as  an 
experience.  (4)  It  is  controlling  as  an  influence. 
(5)  It  is  unanswerable  as  an  argument.  (6)  It  is 
powerful  as  a  dynamic.  When  people  old  or  young 
fully  understand  holiness  they  will  want  to  attain  it. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  BASIS  215 

7.  Last  Things 

Under  this  head  the  Resurrection,  ImmortaHty  and 
the  Judgment  can  be  briefly  discussed.  Nothing  elab- 
orate should  be  attempted  with  these  doctrines  at  this 
stage  of  training,  first,  because  these  doctrines  do  not 
immediately  relate  to  the  program  of  everyday  life  as 
that  program  is  understood  by  young  people,  and  sec- 
ond, because  they  are  a  little  too  abstract  for  these  im- 
mature minds.  But  these  doctrines  should  be  ex- 
plained, so  the  main  idea  of  them  could  be  grasped  and 
they  be  placed  where  they  belong  in  the  body  of  the 
young  Christians'  faith.  On  the  resurrection  the  pas- 
tor would  do  well  to  give  a  simple  exposition  of  Matt. 
28,  Mark  15,  Luke  24,  John  11.  23-26;  20-21;  and 
I  Cor.  15,  Paul's  great  classic  on  the  resurrection.  The 
different  theories  of  the  resurrection  might  be  left  for  a 
later  period  of  training.  The  main  thing  now  is  to 
show  them  that  Jesus  conquered  death  and  is  alive 
forevermore,  and  that  because  he  rose,  so  all  who 
are  his  disciples  will  rise,  too,  and  be  with  him  forever. 

The  resurrection  is,  of  course,  closely  connected  with 
immortality.  Study  passages  for  the  subject  of  im- 
mortality would  be  the  following:  Matt.  25.  34.  John 
3.  16,  36;  5.  24;  6.  47,  58.  Rom.  8.  17,  39;  6.  22. 
Phil.  3.  20.  I  Thess.  4.  17.  2  Cor.  5.  1-8.  i  John 
5.  II,  12. 

Closely  following  upon  this  a  brief  discussion  on  the 
Judgment  can  be  given.  The  chief  thing  to  emphasize 
as  a  practical  problem  is  that  all  life  tends  to  fixity  of 
form  and  direction.  "As  the  twig  is  bent  so  is  the  tree 
inclined."    The  main  thing  in  life  is  to  give  it  a  God- 


2i6  EVANGELISM 

ward  direction  and  a  spiritual  content.  Another  thing 
that  needs  to  be  pointed  out  is  that  character  fixes  des- 
tiny. Every  man  fixes  his  own  destiny ;  in  a  word,  he 
determines  his  own  judgment.  God  only  declares  the 
judgment  that  man  determines  for  himself.  No  man 
has  any  grievance  against  God  if  he  falls  upon  an 
eternal  tragedy,  for  he  brought  that  tragedy  upon  him- 
self in  spite  of  all  that  God  by  patient  love  and  bound- 
less grace  did  for  him  in  the  redemption  offered  in 
Jesus  Christ.  God  sends  no  man  to  hell;  if  man  ever 
goes  to  hell,  he  sends  himself  there.  If  he  will  not  go 
to  the  place  God  prepared  for  him,  he  will  go  to  the 
place  he  prepared  for  himself.  The  lost  man  is  the 
man  that  refuses  to  let  God  save  him.  This  should  be 
clearly  taught  to  give  the  young  people  right  thought 
about  God.  They  must  be  free  from  any  notion  of  a 
monster  or  jailer  God.  The  following  are  suggestive 
study  passages:  Isa.  28.  17.  Matt.  25.  31-46.  Luke 
16.  19-31.  John  5.  22;  15.  1-8;  16.  8-14.  Matt.  12. 
41.    Heb.  9.  27.    James  2.  13.    Psa.  i.  5. 

A  good  deal  of  space  has  been  devoted  to  this  part  of 
evangelistic  work  because  it  is  fundamental  to  sane  re- 
ligious experience  and  efficient  Christian  work.  Young 
Christians  not  only  should  be  soundly  converted  but 
they  should  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  outline 
given  above  is  only  a  suggestion  which  the  pastors  can 
adapt  to  the  needs  of  their  classes,  giving  it  in  a  fuller 
or  more  simple  way  as  the  case  may  require. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE 

The  third  section  in  the  program  of  training  may 
be  called  practice.  The  best  way  to  fix  religion  in 
character  and  make  it  practical  is  to  set  it  to  work. 
Many  things  which  appear  a  little  hazy  in  theory  be- 
come perfectly  clear  in  practice.  Religion  enjoyed  as 
a  personal  luxury  is  of  little  value.  It  is  only  as  it  is 
applied  to  the  practical  problems  of  life  that  it  shows 
its  worth.  If  young  people  have  something  to  do  that 
brings  their  religion  into  action,  they  will  rarely  either 
lapse  or  become  indifferent. 

Young  people  want  action,  and  they  need  it  to 
bring  them  to  their  best.  The  more  they  put  their 
religion  into  action  the  better  they  will  love  and  the 
more  tenaciously  they  will  hold  to  it.  Bringing  other 
people  to  Christ  is  the  most  important  and  enjoyable 
part  of  religious  work. 

Nothing  better  defines  one's  own  religion  and  puts  it 
into  concrete  form  than  personal  work  in  soul-winning. 
It  is  much  easier  to  present  religion  to  a  crowd  than  it 
is  to  an  individual.  Many  a  person  would  rather  lead 
a  meeting  than  to  talk  personally  with  an  individual 
about  his  soul.  One  must  be  very  sure  of  his  own 
ground  when  the  other  person  has  the  privilege  of  talk- 
ing back  and  asking  questions.  But  young  people  in 
the  enthusiasm  of  their  new-found  joy  want  to  talk 
to  others  about  it  if  they  only  know  how.  They  would 
love  to  bring  their  young  friends  to  Christ,  and  while 

217 


2i8  EVANGELISM 

that  desire  is  strong  they  should  be  taught  how  to  do 
it.  They  are  not  yet  mature  enough  in  their  religious 
experience  to  answer  all  the  objections  that  may  be 
raised,  but  the  exuberance  of  their  new  life  in  Christ 
will  often  succeed  where  cold,  exact  reason  might  fail. 
Later  on  they  can  add  clear  and  exact  reason  to  their 
enthusiasm,  and  then  they  will  be  well-nigh  irresistible. 
One  of  their  greatest  feelings  of  need  is  to  know  more 
about  the  Bible.  They  know  that  it  contains  all  that 
is  necessary  for  instruction  in  soul-winning,  but  they 
do  not  know  where  or  how  to  find  it.  The  training 
class  is  the  place  where  they  should  be  taught  the 
use  of  the  Bible  in  soul-winning.  Many  older  people 
would  be  far  better  soul-winners  if  they  knew  more 
about  their  Bibles.  The  best  personal  workers  the 
writer  ever  had  were  young  people  whose  ages  ranged 
from  sixteen  to  twenty  whom  he  trained  in  a  class  like 
the  one  here  suggested.  Those  young  people  thus 
trained  and  employed  became  very  active  in  all  the 
work  of  the  church.  One  of  the  most  important  things 
done  for  those  young  personal  workers  was  to  prepare 
for  them  a  small  personal  workers'  Bible  and  to  teach 
them  how  to  use  it.  This  Bible  is  for  the  most  part 
made  up  of  familiar  passages,  and  about  all  are  taken 
from  the  New  Testament,  so  that  the  labor  of  memor- 
izing them  will  be  very  slight.  The  passages  can  be 
put  on  the  blackboard,  and  the  class  drilled  in  their  lo- 
cation, use,  and  meaning  before  they  are  used  in  per- 
sonal work. 

Personal  Workers'  Bible 

The  value  of  using  the  Bible  in  personal  work  is  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE  219 

it  takes  the  worker  out  of  the  realm  of  argument.  If 
objections  are  raised,  the  worker  can  say :  "These  con- 
ditions are  not  mine,  but  God's.  I  did  not  make  them, 
and  I  cannot  change  them."  Every  Christian  ought  to 
be  a  soul-winner  and  it  is  important  that  these  young 
Christians  should  begin  that  work  as  soon  as  they  are 
able  to  do  it.  Each  person  may  work  in  his  own  way, 
but  he  should  do  something  to  help  save  this  world. 
The  wise  use  of  the  subjoined  passages  will  save  many 
an  inexperienced  worker  from  confusion  and  failure. 

The  plan  is  so  arranged  that  groups  of  passages 
are  brought  together  so  as  to  make  them  immediately 
available  in  personal  work.  The  groups  are  under  four 
heads :  "The  Why,"  "The  What,"  "The  How,"  "The 
When."  Then  there  follows  a  group  which  may  be 
used  in  meeting  the  stock  objections  that  are  raised  by 
so  many  people  with  whom  the  personal  workers  will 
have  to  deal. 

The  first  thing  that  is  to  be  considered  is,  Why  was 
it  necessary  to  have  salvation  at  all?  The  reason  for 
it  was  that  sin  had  entered  the  world  and  alienated 
man  from  God.  The  passages  used  under  "The  Why" 
all  show  man's  sinfulness  and  sin.  The  worker's  plan 
is  then  for  convenience  put  into  the  following  form: 

The  Why 


r 


I.  Sin  < 


Rom.  5.  12 

I  John  I.  8 

Rom.  3.  23.    Key  verse 

I  John  I.  10 

Rom.  3.  10 


220 


EVANGELISM 


The  key  verse  shows  sin  in  the  form  of  commission 
and  omission ;  that  is,  a  man  in  sin  either  transgresses 
the  law  of  God  or  fails  to  realize  God's  purpose  in  his 
life.    In  either  case  life  is  a  failure. 


II.  Salvation 


The  What  . 
fMatt.  I.  21 
I  John  5.  II,  12 
Rom.  5.  6,  8,  10 
Luke  19.  10.    Key  verse 
Isa.  53.  5 
Luke  5.  32 
I  Tim.  I.  15 


These  passages  all  center  in  Christ,  and  the  import- 
ant thing  here  is  not  salvation  as  an  abstract  doctrine, 
but  Christ  as  a  personal  Saviour.  Man  is  not  offered 
a  law  to  be  obeyed,  but  a  Saviour  to  be  loved  and  fol- 
lowed. God's  law  remedy  for  sin  failed,  but  his  love 
remedy  in  Christ  succeeded.  The  worker  is  not  to 
present  a  creed  to  be  believed,  but  a  Saviour  to  be 
trusted  and  loved.  The  whole  matter  is  to  be  kept 
personal. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE 


221 


III.  The  Steps  ^ 


The  How 
Repent 

Forsake 
Believe 

Receive 

Confess  sin 
Confess  Christ 


^Matt.  4.  17 
Luke  13.  2,  3 
Acts  17.  39 

(  Luke  14.  33 
^  Prov.  28.  1 3 

rjohn  5.  24 
J  John  6.  47 
[Acts  16.  31 

^John  I.  12 
Acts  I.  8 
Rom.  5.  II 

I  John  I.  9 
Prov.  28.  13 

Rom.  10.  9,  10 
Matt.  10.  32 


These  steps  should  be  carefully  explained,  so  that 
no  part  of  the  human  requirement  would  be  over- 
looked or  left  undone.  When  one  is  asked,  "How  shall 
I  become  a  Christian?'*  the  above  steps  may  be  ex- 
plained as  the  condition  of  passing  from  sin  to  salva- 
tion. These  are  the  Scriptural  conditions  that  are  to  be 
met  sooner  or  later  in  the  Christian  life.  This  outline 
looks  far  more  complicated  than  the  experience  of  be- 
ing saved  really  is,  but  the  above  are  the  steps  that  are 
actually  taken  either  consciously  or  unconsciously  in 
any  genuine  conversion. 


222 


EVANGELISM 


IV.  Now^ 


The  When 

Deut.  4.  29 
John  6.  2i7 
Luke  14.  17 
John  5.  24 
2  Cor.  6.  2 
Jer.  29.  13 

God  is  always  ready  to  save.  Whatever  delay  there  is 
is  caused  by  man.  God's  time  is  always  now,  and  when 
man  is  ready  to  meet  God's  conditions  salvation  issues 
at  once.  For  the  danger  of  delay  and  the  attention  to 
other  things  see  Luke  9.  59-62. 

There  are  needed  now  a  few  passages  that  will  help 
the  worker  when  objections  of  one  sort  or  another  are 
raised.     So  the  following  are  suggested : 

The  Excuses  of  Man.         The  Answers  of  God. 

Too  much  to  give  up.       |  Mark  8.  36 

Isa.  I.  18;  55.  7.  Heb.  7.  25 

I  Cor.  10.  13.  2  Cor.  12.  9, 
10.  Heb.  2.  17,  18;  4. 
15,  16 

]  Rom.  3.  20.    Eph.  2.  8,  9 
\  Matt.  5.  20,  48;  18.  3.   John 
/  3-  3-5-    2  Cor.  5.  10 

Rom.  8.  35-39.  Eph.  3.  20, 
21.  Phil.  4.  13,  19.  2 
Tim.  I.  12.  Heb.  6.  16- 
20;  13.  8.    Jude  24 


Too  bad  to  be  saved 

Temptation  too  great 

Good  works  will  save 
Good  as  Christians  are 

Cannot  hold  out 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE  223 

These  are  the  stock  excuses  and  the  scriptural  an- 
swers that  may  be  given  to  them.  If  the  objector  will 
not  listen  to  the  promises  of  Scripture,  there  is  little 
use  for  a  young  personal  worker  to  spend  his  time  try- 
ing to  convince  him  with  arguments.  Little  is  gained 
by  argument  any  way,  except  in  rare  cases.  For  the 
most  part  those  who  are  unwilling  to  become  Chris- 
tians are  not  held  back  so  much  by  intellectual  diffi- 
culties as  they  are  by  their  unwillingness  to  give  up 
their  sin  or  because  they  are  not  willing  to  dedicate 
themselves  to  a  life  of  unselfish  service.  The  difficulty 
is  not  mental  but  moral.  This  little  personal  workers' 
Bible  when  judiciously  used  will  meet  all  the  needs  of 
reasonable  and  earnest  people. 

For  convenience  the  whole  above  plan  may  be  put 
together  in  one  form  like  the  following  and  printed 
on  a  card  or,  better  still,  on  small  sheets  of  paper 
which  can  be  pasted  on  the  fly  leaves  of  their  Bibles  or 
folded  and  carried  in  their  pocket  Testaments.  Thus 
it  would  be  always  available  for  immediate  use,  and  by 
studying  it  in  their  leisure  the  workers  could  become 
perfectly  famihar  with  it. 


THE  PLAN  COMPLETE 
The  Why 


L  Sin 


Rom  5.  12 

I  John  I.  8 

Rom.  3.  23.     Key  verse 

I  John  I.  10 

Rom.  3.  10 


224 


EVANGELISM 


THE  PLAN  COMFLETE-^Continued 
The  What 

Matt.  I.  21 
I  John  5.  II,  12 
Rom.  5.  6,  8,  10 
Luke  19.  10.     Key  verse 
Isa.  53.  5 
Luke  5.  32 
^i  Tim.  I.  15 


IL     Salvation  ^ 


in.  The  Steps  ^ 


The  How 
Repent 

Forsake 

Believe 

Receive 

Confess  sin 
Confess  Christ 


"Matt.  4.  17 
Luke  13.  2,  3 
Acts   17.  39 

Luke  14.  33 
Prov.  28.  13 

7ohn  5.  24 
John  6.  47 
Acts  16.  31 

fjohn  I.  12 
J  Acts  I.  8 
I  Rom.  5.  II 

C  I  John  I.  9 
I  Prov.  28.  13 

(  Rom.  10.  9,  10 
)  Matt.  10.  32 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE 


225 


The  W^EN 


Now 


Deut.  4.  29 
John  6.  37 
Luke  14.  17 
John  5.  24 
2  Cor.  6.  2 
Jer.  29.  13 


Excuses 

AND      S 

Answers 


I  Cor.   10. 
Heb.  2.  17, 

Rom.  3.  20. 


1.  Too  much  to  give  up.     Mark  8.  36 

2.  Too  bad  to  be  saved.     Isa.   i.   18; 

55.7.    Heb.  7.  25 

3.  Temptation  too  great. 

13.    2  Cor,  12.  9,  10. 
18;  4-  15.  16 

4.  Good  works  will  save. 

Eph.  2.  8,  9 

5.  Good  as  Christians  are.     Matt.   5. 

20,  48;  18.  3.  John  3.  3-5.  2 
Cor.  5.  10 

6.  Cannot  hold  out.     Rom.  8.  35-39- 

Eph.  3.  20,  21.  Phil.  4.  13,  19. 
2  Tim.  I.  12.  Heb.  6.  16-20;  13. 
8.     Jude  24 


The  fourth  and  last  section  in  the  training  has  to  do 
with  church  membership. 

I.  The  Articles  of  Faith,  or  the  Creed  of  the  Church. 
These  should  be  simplified,  explained,  and  as  far  as 
possible  be  put  into  modern  English,  so  that  there 
would  be  no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  young  people  what 
these  articles  of  faith  really  mean.     The  essentials  of 


226  EVANGELISM 

the  Articles  of  Religion  could  be  put  into  some 
such  simple  form,  as  this,  for  example:  (i)  The 
Fatherhood  of  God.  (2)  The  Saviourhood  and  Deity 
of  Jesus  Christ.  (3)  the  Person  and  Deity  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  (4)  Sin.  (5)  Redemption.  (6)  Sal- 
vation. (7)*  Forgiveness.  (8)  Man's  freedom  of 
the  will.  (9)  The  Sufficiency  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures of  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
as  the  rule  of  faith,  conduct,  and  Christian  cul- 
ture. (10)  Faith.  (11)  The  resurrection.  (12)  Im- 
mortality. (13)  Judgment.  These  different  subjects 
can  be  explained  so  that  even  very  young  Christians 
can  understand  them. 

2.  The  General  Rules,  or  the  Conditions  of  Member- 
ship in  the  Church  and  the  Duties  Expected  of  Church 
Members.  The  rules  are  to  be  interpreted  by  the  pas- 
tor. 

3.  The  Sacraments,  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper, 
are  to  be  fully  explained  as  to  their  nature  and  mean- 
ing and  their  place  in  the  church. 

4.  The  questions  that  are  asked  of  all  candidates 
for  membership  as  they  are  received  into  the  church 
are  to  be  gone  over  carefully  with  the  candidates  be- 
fore they  are  received  into  membership,  so  that  every 
part  of  the  service  will  be  perfectly  understood. 

A  good  deal  should  be  made  of  the  reception  into 
church  membership.  It  should  be  so  dignified  and  im- 
pressive that  it  would  never  be  forgotten.  Many  peo- 
ple will  remember  their  initiation  into  a  lodge  much 
longer  than  they  will  their  reception  into  the  church. 
That  should  not  be  so.  Reception  into  the  church 
of  Christ  ought  to  be  made  the  most  impressive  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  SERVICE  227 

beautiful  service  that  any  person  ever  witnesses,  for, 
next  to  being  saved,  it  is  the  most  important  thing  one 
ever  does.  So,  after  a  careful  training,  reception  into 
the  church  should  be  a  red-letter  day  in  the  lives  of 
these  young  people. 

The  aim  of  this  course  of  training  is  to  make  the 
members  of  the  class  (i)  spiritual  Christians,  (2) 
biblical  Christians,  (3)  active  Christians,  (4)  intelli- 
gent church  members.  If  this  kind  of  work  were  done, 
there  would  be  fewer  backsliders,  less  formality  in 
the  church,  better  church  attendance,  more  work  done 
for  the  Kingdom,  and  less  ground  for  the  charge  of 
inconsistent  Christian  living.  It  is  a  work  that  re- 
quires much  tact  and  patience,  but  there  is  no  invest- 
ment of  time  and  strength  that  makes  a  larger  return 
in  life's  higher  values.    - 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING 

This  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  delicate  of  all 
the  arts,  and  it  is  an  art.  If  it  is  art  to  carve  a  marble 
block  into  a  beautiful  statue,  or  to  paint  a  landscape  so 
that  the  river  seems  to  flow  and  the  leaves  to  move, 
enabling  one  almost  to  smell  the  flowers  in  the  fore- 
ground; if  it  is  an  art  to  compose  an  oratorio  that 
moves  the  soul,  or  to  write  a  poem  that  gives  nature  a 
voice,  certainly  it  is  an  art  to  help  build  a  soul  into  the 
image  of  God.  It  is  such  a  difficult  art,  the  material 
upon  which  one  is  to  work  is  so  precious,  and  to  blunder 
is  so  serious — for  nothing  is  more  serious  than  to  dam- 
age a  soul — that  many  people  would  rather  not  at- 
tempt it  at  all  than  to  run  the  risk  of  doing  it  badly. 
Molding  character  is  a  serious  business. 

A  person  must  spend  time  in  learning  how  to  ap- 
proach people  on  the  matter  of  religion.  No  standard 
rule  can  be  given,  as  people  are  so  different,  and  each 
case  must  be  studied  by  itself.  Young  enthusiastic  per- 
sonal workers  often  make  a  mistake  in  thinking  that 
the  same  method  of  approach  will  be  equally  effective 
with  all  people,  and  after  they  have  success  with  one 
person  and  are  rebuffed  by  another,  they  are  apt  to  get 
discouraged  and  give  up  personal  work  altogether. 
Preachers  often  get  discouraged  for  the  same  reason. 
There  has  to  be  very  much  individual  work  done  in 

228 


THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING         229 

what  looks  like  mass  work.  There  is  a  mass  action,  of 
course,  where  there  is  not  much  individual  thinking  or 
decision ;  but  when  the  mass  falls  apart  into  individuals, 
the  individual  is  very  little  affected  by  his  mass  action. 
The  actions  that  become  habits  and  grow  into  charac- 
ter are  individual  actions,  even  though  sometimes  they 
may  have  mass  expression.  God  does  not  save  masses, 
but  individuals  in  masses.  Each  individual  must  make 
a  specific  and  personal  act  of  surrender  and  consecra- 
tion to  God.  The  reason  that  so  many  different  kinds 
of  invitations  are  given  in  any  one  meeting  is  that  the 
method  that  will  reach  one  will  not  appeal  to  another. 
So  we  must,  like  Paul,  become  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  by  all  means  we  may  save  some.  The  same  form 
of  invitation  might  not  work  with  the  same  individual 
at  different  times.  We  are  more  or  less  the  creatures, 
if  not  the  victims,  of  moods.  Men  must  be  approached 
according  to  their  moods.  Men  do  that  in  business,  in 
politics,  and  in  recreations.  They  ought  to  be  wise 
enough  to  do  it  also  in  religion. 

In  the  art  of  soul-winning  two  things  are  to  be"  con- 
sidered :  first,  the  qualification  of  the  soul-winner,  and, 
second,  the  personal  example  of  Jesus  (see  Part  IV, 
Chapter  V). 

I.  In  the  personal  qualification  of  the  soul-winner 
there  are  several  things  that  demand  attention. 

I.  Goodness.  No  man  long  succeeds  in  trying  to 
make  men  what  he  is  not  himself.  If  his  own  religion 
is  not  genuine,  he  may  be  more  or  less  successful  in 
the  conduct  of  a  meeting,  but  he  cannot  long  be  suc- 
cessful in  dealing  directly  with  individuals.  The  great- 
est test  of  personal  piety,  is  to  try  to  win  some  one  else 


230  EVANGELISM 

to  Christ.  In  close  contact  with  another  soul,  unless 
one  has  genuine  goodness,  his  lips  are  closed.  One  can- 
not urge  the  claims  of  Christ  on  another,  when  he 
knows  that  he  has  not  met  those  claims  himself. 

But  one  must  not  only  be  good ;  he  must  be  consistent 
in  his  goodness.  He  must  be  of  unblemished  reputation 
in  his  community.  It  may  seem  very  commonplace  to 
say  that  before  he  can  successfully  be  a  soul-winner  he 
must  be  both  respected  and  trusted,  even  by  the  man  on 
the  outside,  but  that  is  the  fact.  A  man  can  very 
quickly  be  put  to  silence  if  something  is  known  against 
his  moral  character,  or  if  he  is  not  clean  or  self-con- 
trolled in  his  personal  habits.  If  a  minister  does  not 
keep  his  appointments,  pay  his  debts,  or  behave  him- 
self with  dignity  and  sincerity,  he  will  never  be  suc- 
cessful in  personal  evangelism.  Goodness  which  is 
both  constant  and  consistent  is  the  first  essential  in 
personal  evangelism. 

2.  Tact.  Tactless  goodness  often  does  much  harm. 
It  often  makes  itself  ridiculous,  and  that  defeats  its 
own  end.  Sometimes  a  person  is  turned  against  re- 
ligion permanently  by  the  tactless  approach  of  a  well- 
meaning  but  tactless  soul-winner.  That  is  very  un- 
fortunate. The  one  is  disgusted,  the  other  disap- 
pointed, and  both  are  defeated.  The  one  sinned  against 
himself  for  refusing  to  be  helped,  even  though  he  was 
approached  tactlessly.  He  ought  to  have  overlooked 
the  blunder  in  method  because  of  the  sincerity  of  the 
motive.  The  other  sinned  against  his  neighbor  by  not 
using  ordinary  common  sense  in  the  most  important 
work  of  God,  that  of  soul-winning;  he  hindered  him 
in  his  attempt  to  help  him. 


THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING         231 

No  good  business  house  would  put  on  the  road  or 
behind  the  counter  a  tactless  salesman.  He  might  sell 
some  goods,  but  he  would  alienate  more  customers 
that  he  would  win,  and  that  would  not  be  good  busi- 
ness. 

It  is  to  prevent  tactless  people  doing  just  that  thing 
that  the  pastor  must  use  the  greatest  care  in  the  selec- 
tion of  his  personal  workers.  In  soul- winning  not  even 
piety  is  of  greater  importance  than  common  sense. 
There  is  no  place  where  the  Golden  Rule  can  be  ap- 
plied to  greater  advantage  than  in  personal  evangelism. 
The  evangelist  should  never  make  the  person  whom  he 
would  win  to  Christ  so  conspicuous  as  to  embarrass, 
much  less  to  humiliate  him.  Such  a  thing  is  inexcus- 
able. 

There  are  known  to  the  writer  two  most  excellent 
and  useful  laymen,  one  of  whom  was  kept  out  of  the 
church  for  ten  years  and  the  other  seventeen  years  be- 
cause of  the  tactless  approach  of  two  very  sincere  and 
good  men,  one  of  whom  was  a  minister.  Consecration 
and  earnestness  will  not  atone  for  a  lack  of  tact.'  The 
practice  of  the  Golden  Rule  would  have  saved  many  a 
person  to  the  Kingdom  who  is  now  lost  to  it  by  being 
treated  in  a  way  that  was  neither  wise  nor  delicate. 
If  fishers  of  men  were  as  wise  as  fishermen,  they  would 
be  far  more  successful.  No  fisherman  would  ever  try 
to  make  shy  fish  bite  by  thrashing  the  pool  with  his 
pole.  Yet  some  fishers  of  men  try  to  drive  men  into  the 
Kingdom  by  rash,  and  even  violent,  methods.  Men 
must  be  won  to  Christ,  not  frightened,  forced  or  coaxed 
into  accepting  him.  The  very  word  "winner"  indi- 
cates delicacy,  grace,  tact.    No  one  would  think  of  tak- 


232  EVANGELISM 

ing  a  diamond  to  a  stonemason  to  set,  even  though  he 
sets  stones.  He  sets  stones,  not  gems.  Who  would 
think  of  taking  a  chronometer  to  a  blacksmith  for  re- 
pair, though  he  repairs  machines?  They  are  taken  to 
the  highest-skilled  experts.  Yet  the  soul  is  more  valu- 
able than  the  diamond,  and  more  delicate  than  the  chro- 
nometer, although  many  people  seem  to  think  that  almost 
anybody  can  blunder  with  a  soul  with  impunity.  The 
pastor  is,  or  is  supposed  to  be,  an  expert  in  this  high 
art  of  skilled  workmanship,  and  he  cannot,  without 
peril,  delegate  this  work  to  unskilled  workmen.  He 
must  lead  in  this  work  himself,  and  what  he  does  not 
do  directly  he  must  carefully  guard  and  supervise.  A 
butcher's  cleaver  is  too  rough  an  instrument  with 
which  to  remove  a  cataract  from  the  eye.  No  rough 
instrument  should  be  used  on  a  human  soul  that  is  to 
be  won  to  Christ.  Volunteer  soul-winners  should  be 
studied  with  great  care  and  employed  with  great  cau- 
tion. Many  such  people  do  not  sense  the  seriousness 
of  the  work  for  which  they  volunteer.  Before  they 
are  set  to  such  a  task  they  should  be  most  carefully 
trained,  especially  in  the  art  of  approach.  If  the  ap- 
proach is  wisely  made,  more  than  half  the  work  is  done. 
The  man  on  the  outside  is  more  or  less  on  the  defensive. 
He  must  not  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  going  to  be  at- 
tacked, but  that  some  one  who  has  found  something 
far  better  than  he  has,  wants  to  share  it  with  him. 
The  soul-winner  is  to  approach  him  as  a  brother  to 
help,  not  as  a  master  to  conquer  him. 

So  that  spiritual  sagacity,  or  what  might  be  called 
sanctified  common  sense,  is  of  vital  importance  in  per- 
sonal evangelism.     It  makes  goodness  practical. 


THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING         233 

3.  Faith.  This  faith  is  not  a  mysterious  some- 
thing that  lies  outside  of  the  realm  of  common  experi- 
ence. Christian  faith  is  not  something  apart ;  it  is  the 
faith  or  confidence  of  common  Hfe  appHed  to  higher 
things  or  persons.  If  we  trusted  God,  who  is  always 
dependable,  as  much  as  we  do  men,  who  are  often  un- 
dependable,  the  world  would  be  transformed.  It  is  not 
a  different  kind  of  faith  that  men  need  to  make  them 
successful  soul-winners,  but  the  same  kind  of  faith 
that  makes  them  successful  in  any  other  work  in  life. 
It  is  the  persons  or  things  to  which  the  faith  is  di- 
rected that  makes  the  difference.  Much  of  the  best  in 
both  experience  and  service  is  missed  because  most 
people  think  that  faith  in  the  Christian  sense  is  radically 
different  from  faith  in  the  ordinary  sense,  or  that  it 
requires  a  separate  faculty  of  the  soul  to  exercise  it. 
The  Christian  life  is  not  another  and  different  Hfe 
lived  alongside  of  the  ordinary  life;  it  is  the  ordinary 
life  brought  up  to  its  best  in  the  will  of  God. 

The  writer  has  elsewhere  illustrated  the  faith  of  per- 
sonal evangelism  by  the  faith  of  successful  salesman- 
ship. A  salesman  must  believe  in  certain  fundamental 
things,  or  he  is  a  failure  from  the  start.  He  must  be- 
lieve in  at  least  the  following  things,  or  he  will  have 
neither  enthusiasm  nor  confidence  in  his  task : 

( I )  He  must  believe  in  a  market.  No  man  can  get 
up  much  enthusiasm  to  sell  goods  if  he  does  not  believe 
there  is  a  market;  that  is  to  say,  a  demand  or  a  need 
for  them.  The  demand  may  only  be  potential,  but  the 
need  must  be  actual.  If  the  need  is  there,  he  can  create 
the  demand  by  calling  attention  to  the  need;  but  if 
there  is  no  need,  he  cannot  create  a  demand,  and  so 


234  EVANGELISM 

cannot  sell  goods.  That  is  precisely  true  of  evangelism. 
The  evangelist  must  believe  with  all  his  heart  that  the 
world  does  need  the  gospel.  The  demand  for  the  gos- 
pel may  not  be  very  urgent,  but  he  knows  that  he  can 
create  a  demand  by  showing  how  desperately  the  world 
is  in  need  of  the  good  news  and  that  it  is  the  only  hope 
of  the  world.  But  he  knows  well  that  he  cannot  work 
up  a  fictitious  demand  for  that  which  is  not  needed. 
If  the  world  does  not  need  the  truth,  if  the  presenta- 
tion of  Christ  as  a  Saviour  will  awake  no  sense  of 
need  in  men's  hearts,  there  can  be  no  compelling  motive 
in  evangelism,  and  the  whole  work  is  doomed  from  the 
start.  Where  there  is  no  sense  of  need  there  will  be 
no  passion  to  help.  So  the  evangelist  must  first  be- 
lieve there  is  a  need  for  the  gospel. 

(2)  He  must  believe  in  himself.  No  matter  how 
keenly  a  salesman  may  feel,  or  how  honestly  he  may 
believe  in  a  market,  he  will  fail  if  he  does  not  believe 
that  he  can  deliver  the  goods.  It  will  not  do  for  him  to 
discover  or  create  a  market,  only  to  leave  it  to  his  com- 
petitor. He  takes  the  order  with  the  full  assurance 
that  he  is  able  to  fill  it.  He  would  be  a  poor  salesman 
who,  after  he  had  represented  his  house  and  exhibited 
his  samples,  told  the  prospective  buyer  that  in  a  few 
days  a  more  competent  man  would  be  along  and  book 
the  order.  Now,  the  personal  evangelist  must  have 
the  same  sort  of  self-confidence.  He  must  believe  that 
he  can  present  the  gospel  in  such  manner  that  men  will 
accept  it. 

This  is  especially  important  for  the  pastor.  How 
often  it  is  true  that  the  pastor  does  not  believe  that  con- 
versions will  occur  under  his  own  preaching!    He  can 


THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING         235 

preach  for  the  ordinary  culture  of  his  church,  but 
when  he  wants  to  win  souls  he  must  get  somebody 
that  can  do  it  to  come  and  help  him.  He  too  often 
feels  that  he  cannot  do  it  because  he  never  tried.  Even 
when  he  gives  an  invitation  he  is  surprised  if  there 
is  a  response  to  it.  He  ought  to  be  surprised  if  there 
were  not  a  response  to  it.  Every  pastor  is  genuinely 
glad  when  men  and  women  are  led  to  Christ  and 
brought  into  the  church,  no  matter  who  does  the  win- 
ning; but  there  is  no  joy  so  great,  and  nothing  con- 
tributes so  much  to  steadiness  of  faith  and  positiveness 
in  preaching,  as  conversions  under  one's  own  preach- 
ing. Nothing  gives  the  pastor  more  encouragement 
in  his  evangelistic  organization  than  to  have  efficient 
bands  of  personal  workers  under  his  direction  and  in- 
struction. If  more  pastors  would  believe  more  in 
themselves  as  the  agents  whom  God  uses  for  this  work, 
and  practise  personal  and  pastoral  evangelism  more, 
there  would  be  far  fewer  dead  churches  and  dis- 
couraged pastors  than  there  are  to-day. 

This  wholesome  self-confidence  which  makes  one 
successful  is  very  far  removed  from  that  obnoxious 
egotism  which  invites  failure  in  advance.  This  self- 
confidence  is  the  assurance  that  one  is  doing  what  God 
wants  him  to  do  and  in  the  way  God  wants  him  to 
do  it.  That  is  a  kind  of  authority  which  is  very  hard 
to  resist. 

(3)  He  must  believe  in  the  genuineness  of  his 
goods.  A  good  salesman  must  believe  in  the  genuine- 
ness of  his  goods;  that  is,  that  they  are  according 
to  sample.  Otherwise  he  can  neither  hope  to  hold  old 
customers  nor  make  new  ones.     If  the  goods  are  not 


236  EVANGELISM 

up  to  standard;  if  they  are  represented  as  first  class 
and  turn  out  to  be  fourth  class,  the  salesman  knows 
that  it  is  of  no  use  for  him  to  go  back  again.  He  has 
been  discredited.  His  goods  are  a  sham  and  he  is  a 
fraud. 

That  is  equally  true  with  the  evangelist.  He  must 
believe  in  the  power  of  the  gospel  he  preaches,  in  the 
love  and  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  offers  to  the 
people,  or  he  might  as  well  go  out  of  the  work.  Will 
Christ  save  any  man  who  will  give  him  a  chance? 
It  is  not  hard  to  believe  that  Christ  will  save  the  fine 
young  people  of  the  Sunday  school,  but  can  he  save 
the  submerged  class  that  can  be  reached  only  by  per- 
sonal work,  or  by  the  rescue  mission  ?  Will  the  pastor 
have  the  same  confidence  with  both  classes,  and  know 
that  to  Christ  no  case  is  hopeless  ?  The  gospel  can  build 
the  wreckage  of  human  life  into  self-respecting  and 
efficient  men  and  women  again.  The  evangelist  must 
believe  that,  before  he  can  make  any  approach  to  the 
so-called  ''down  and  out"  class  with  any  hope  of 
success. 

It  would  do  many  a  pastor  and  personal  worker 
a  great  deal  of  good  to  pay  frequent  visits  to  rescue 
missions  and  watch  the  transformations  that  take 
place  as  the  outcasts  of  the  city  enter  upon  the  new 
life  in  Christ.  It  would  restore  many  a  shattered  faith 
and  give  courage  to  many  a  timid  preacher  and  hesi- 
tant worker.  They  would,  at  first,  be  almost  shocked 
at  what  looked  like  the  holy  boldness  of  the  missioner, 
but  they  would  soon  realize  that  the  missioner  took 
God  at  his  word  and  believed  the  gospel  was  what  the 
Bible  represented  it  to  be.     Any  preacher  or  worker 


THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING         237 

ought  to  do  that.  Like  good  salesmen,  they  must  be- 
lieve in  the  genuineness  of  their  goods  (see  Rom.  i.  16; 
Heb.  7-25). 

(4)  He  must  believe  in  his  firm.  A  good  salesman 
must  believe  in  the  integrity  of  the  firm  he  represents, 
else  he  cannot  sell  goods — at  least  not  twice  in  the  same 
place.  Men  cannot  be  enthusiastic  for,  or  confident  in, 
the  men  in  whom  they  do  not  believe.  What  gives  a 
salesman  courage  is  confidence  in  the  reliability  of  his 
house.  He  trades  on  the  reputation  of  the  men  who 
built  up  the  business.  He  can  say — and  it  is  of  immense 
value  to  him — "if  this  bill  of  goods  does  not  prove  to  be 
entirely  satisfactory,  my  house  will  make  it  good. 
Return  anything  that  is  not  up  to  standard,  at  our 
expense,  and  it  will  cost  you  nothing.  You  can't  lose 
in  trading  with  our  house."  But  before  a  salesman 
can  say  that,  he  must  believe  that  his  house  will  stand 
back  of  him.  He  must  believe  that  the  word  of  his 
house  is  as  good  as  gold. 

That  is  what  the  evangelist  must  believe.  He  must 
believe  that  when  Christ  gave  his  great  commission,  in 
Matt.  28.  18-20,  he  meant  what  he  said;  that  when  he 
uttered  such  statements  as  Luke  19.  10,  John  5.  24,  6. 
37-47,  John  3.  16,  he  was  in  earnest.  He  must  believe 
that  John  i.  12,  i  John  i.  8-10,  5.  2,  12,  Acts  27.  18, 
Rom,.  5.  I,  6,  8,  10,  Heb.  7.  25,  and  a  multitude  of 
other  passages  are  true,  and  that  God  stands  by  him  in 
his  work,  or  else  he  will  have  neither  courage  nor  con- 
stancy in  the  matter.  The  soul-winner  is  not  working 
alone.  He  is  doing  team  work  with  Christ  in  help- 
ing to  save  the  world.  His  faith,  therefore,  will  ex- 
press itself  in  a  recognition  of  the  world's  need,  in  self- 


238  EVANGELISM 

confidence,  in  a  conviction  that  the  gospel  will  do  all 
that  it  claims  it  will  do,  and  that  God  will  be  with  him 
and  give  him  success. 

4.  Knowledge.  He  must  know  men;  he  ought  to 
be  able  to  sense  the  spirit  of  the  times,  but  above  all  he 
must  know  his  Bible.  He  may  not  know  it  as  the 
scholar  does,  but  he  must  know  it  experimentally.  He 
must  know  it  as  one  of  the  instruments  of  sal- 
vation. He  must  know  what  the  great  evan- 
gelistic passages  are,  and  where  they  are  found, 
and  be  able  to  use  them.  The  use  of  the  Bible  in  per- 
sonal work  has  been  treated  in  a  previous  chapter,  and 
little  more  needs  to  be  said  here  on  that  subject.  But 
here,  again,  a  good  salesman  may  be  able  to  teach  an 
important  lesson. 

If  he  is  selling  a  set  of  books  like  Dickens,  Hugo, 
Thackeray,  or  Scott,  he  does  not  have  to  know  the 
whole  set,  but  he  must  know  those  salient  parts  which 
are  the  selling  points.  So  he  masters  his  prospectus, 
and  sells  his  set  on  a  few  talking  points,  which  in  a 
way  epitomize  the  value  of  the  set  and  throw  some 
light  on  the  characteristics  of  the  author.  Just  so 
should  the  personal  worker  know  his  Bible.  He  can- 
not know  it  all,  but  he  does  need  to  know  those  parts 
of  it  that  are  vital  to  his  particular  work.  A  judicious 
use  of  the  Bible  will  not  only  save  him  from  the  possi- 
ble errors  of  his  own  judgment,  but  it  will  give  him  an 
authority  which,  when  backed  up  by  his  own  experi- 
ence, will  make  his  word  almost  irresistible. 

5.  Prayer.  It  almost  goes  without  the  saying  that 
a  soul-winner  must  be  a  man  of  prayer;  and  this  is 
important,  both  for  the  effect  it  produces  on  himself 


THE  ART  OF  SOUL-WINNING         239 

and  the  effect  it  produces  on  others.  Nothing  puts  one 
en  rapport  with  another  hke  prayer.  Many  a  person 
who  had  a  cold  indifference  to  the  unchurched  world, 
and  especially  the  foreigners  in  his  own  land,  and  also 
the  vast  shadowy  millions  of  the  non-Christian  world, 
has  had  an  evangelistic  passion  created  in  him  by  mak- 
ing a  prayer  Hst  of  a  few  unsaved  persons,  in  whom 
he  had  no  particular  interest,  and  praying  for  them 
every  day  by  name.  A  man  will  not  do  that  very  long 
before  he  will  seek  some  opportunity  to  help  answer  his 
own  prayers.  He  will  see  how  incongruous  it  is  to  be 
constantly  asking  God  to  do  something  that  he  might 
better  do  himself.  So  he  and  God  become  partners  in 
the  winning  of  that  soul,  God  always  doing  what  man 
cannot  do,  but  man  always  doing  the  thing  he  can  do. 

It  is  in  intercessory  prayer  that  men  catch  the  evan- 
gelistic passion  of  Jesus.  Prayer  before,  in,  and  after 
the  evangelistic  effort  is  a  safe  rule  to  go  by  in  evan- 
gelistic work. 

But  prayer  also  has  a  wonderful  effect  upon  others. 
However  little  it  may  be  understood,  the  fact  tTiat 
prayer  does  affect  the  other  person  is  well  known  to  all 
who  have  had  any  considerable  experience  in  evangel- 
istic work.  Most  great  revivals  have  been  prayed  down 
by  sick  or  aged  saints  who  could  do  little  else  than 
pray.  Many  a  pastor  has  been  prayed  into  eloquence 
by  a  few  godly  people  in  his  congregation  who  were 
unable  to  hear  him  preach.  Sometimes  he  was  seized 
with  an  unction  not  his  own,  and  he  felt  as  though  God 
was  speaking  through  him,  and  afterward  he  learned 
that  at  that  very  hour  his  most  spiritually  gifted  saint 
was  praying  for  him.     How  many  a  Sunday  school 


240  EVANGELISM 

teacher  has  had  the  joy  of  seeing  every  unsaved  mem- 
ber of  the  class  yield  to  Christ's  kingship  on  Decision 
Day  after  he  or  she  had  prayed  for  them  for  weeks  by 
name. 

Only  those  who  have  tried  it  know  what  a  powerful 
factor  in  evangelism  is  the  laying  siege  to  a  soul  by 
prayer.  Many  a  soul  is  won  by  the  siege  of  prayer 
who  could  not  be  moved  by  the  assault  of  argument  or 
the  subtle  form  of  persuasion.  Prayer,  especially  in- 
tercessory prayer,  is  fundamental  in  evangelism. 

6.  The  Holy  Spirit.  This  has  already  been  implied  in 
section  four  under  "Faith,"  namely,  the  cooperation  of 
God  in  the  work  of  soul-saving.  Jesus  says  in  John 
1 6  that  the  first  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  convict 
of  sin.  In  John  3  he  says  men  must  be  born  of  the 
Spirit.  In  Acts  i.  8  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  such 
as  came  on  the  apostles  at  Pentecost,  and  many  times 
later  for  the  purpose  of  witnessing,  which  we  to-day 
might  call  soul-winning,  is  a  special  divine  help  that 
soul-winners  may  seek  and  expect,  in  that  most  diffi- 
cult work  of  the  Kingdom. 

The  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  put  at  the  disposal 
of  all  those  who  endeavor  to  save  those  whom  Christ 
has  redeemed.  Utter  dependence  upon  the  guidance 
and  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  essential  in  successful 
evangelism.  The  above  personal  qualifications  are  the 
first  considerations  in  the  art  of  soul-winning. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE   MASTER    SOUL-WINNER 

Jesus  used  a  variety  of  ways  to  win  disciples.  He 
adapted  his  message  and  method  to  the  occasion  and 
person.  Sometimes  he  reached  people  by  healing 
them,  sometimes  by  feeding  them,  sometimes  by  teach- 
ing them,  sometimes  by  appreciating  them,  like  the 
woman  of  the  street  who  anointed  him  (see  Luke  7. 
36-47),  sometimes  by  comforting,  all  the  time  by  serv- 
ing them.  His  evangelism  was  made  effective  by  wise 
teaching  and  loving  service.  No  evangelist  could  do 
better  than  to  sit  at  his  feet  and  study  his  method  and 
catch  his  spirit;  than  to  watch  him  in  action  and  see 
how  he  did  it,  and  then,  with  humility,  reverence,  and 
faith,  try  to  do  likewise. 

A  study  of  the  method  of  Jesus  would  correct  many 
of  the  faults  that  are  committed  by  honest  people  who 
take  their  own  conversion  as  the  norm  by  which  all 
conversions,  and  therefore  all  methods,  are  to  be 
judged.  If  a  different  method  is  employed  from  the 
one  by  which  they  were  converted,  they  suspect  its 
utility,  and  if  the  resulting  conversion  expresses  itself 
in  a  different  form  than  theirs,  they  suspect  its  genu- 
ineness. There  must  be  almost  as  many  methods  as 
men,  and  there  will  be  as  many  forms  of  expression 
as  there  are  temperaments,  training,  and  peculiarities 

241 


242  EVANGELISM 

among  the  converted.  All  this  could  easily  be  corrected 
by  a  study  of  the  methods  of  Jesus. 

One  interesting  study  would  be  the  different  methods 
employed  by  Jesus  in  healing  blind  men.  One  might 
say  that  these  cases  were  nearly  enough  alike  to  be  all 
healed  in  the  same  way.  Blindness  was  blindness,  and 
the  way  to  open  blind  eyes  was  to  open  them;  why, 
then,  not  use  the  same  method  with  all?  Because  to 
Jesus  every  man's  personality  was  sacred,  and  he  would 
do  violence  to  no  man's  personal  feelings  or  rights, 
even  for  the  sake  of  doing  him  good.  With  Jesus  it 
was  not  merely  a  matter  of  doing  good,  but  of  doing 
the  most  good,  and  doing  it  in  the  best  way.  Jesus 
connected  the  healing  of  the  blind  men  with  their  dis- 
cipleship  (see  Matt.  20.  29-34;  Mark  10.  46-52;  John 
9.  i-ii). 

Jesus  approached  Nicodemus  in  a  different  way  than 
he  did  Saul  of  Tarsus.  Read  John  3.  11-13  and  Acts 
9.  1-8;  note  the  sick  woman  in  Luke  8.  41-48  and  the 
impotent  man  in  John  i.  43-51 ;  the  thief  on  the  cross, 
Luke  2-}^.  39-45 ;  the  calling  of  his  apostles,  Mark  i.  16- 
20;  the  man  with  the  palsy,  Matt.  9.  1-6;  the  woman 
of  the  street  in  Luke  7.  37-50;  the  demoniac  of  Ga- 
dara,  Luke  8.  27-39;  Zacchseus,  in  Luke  19.  1-9;  the 
multitude,  John  10.  42.  But  the  best  case  in  which  to 
study  the  psychology  of  Jesus  as  a  soul-winner  is  the 
Samaritan  woman  in  John  4.  5-42.  Few  cases  ever 
will  come  in  a  man's  ministry  or  in  a  lay  worker's  ex- 
perience more  beset  with  difficulties  than  this  instance. 
The  consummate  skill  with  which  Jesus  handles  this 
case  is  a  model  in  the  art  of  successful  personal  evan- 
gelism.    There  were  several  obstacles  in  the  way  to 


THE  MASTER  SOUL-WINNER         243 

begin  with,  and  she  raised  several  others  before  she 
was  converted.  The  approach  of  Jesus  to  this  woman 
at  the  well  in  the  interest  of  her  soul  was  wholly 
gratuitous  on  his  part.  The  initial  obstacles  in  the 
way,  according  to  the  standards  of  the  times,  both 
social  and  religious,  would  have  excused  him  from  hav- 
ing anything  to  say  to  her  or  do  for  her.  He  owed  her 
nothing,  but  Jesus  recognized  a  far  higher  standard 
than  the  conventions  of  his  day.  He  was  her  Saviour, 
and  his  coming  was  for  her  and  those  like  her,  as  much 
as  it  was  for  those  like  Nathanael,  Nicodemus  and 
Saint  John.  The  artificial  distinctions  that  separate 
men  did  not  count  with  Jesus.  There  was  a  common 
ground  of  need  among  all  men — the  need  of  God. 
Jesus  came  to  meet  that  need,  and  to  that  mission  all 
else  was  subordinate.  That  which  gave  most  men  an 
excuse  to  do  nothing  Jesus  brushed  aside  and  came 
to  the  work  of  helping  men  into  the  Kingdom  as 
though  no  obstacle  existed.  When  he  said,  "For  what 
is  a  man  profited,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  his  own  soul?"  (Matt.  16.  26)  he  was  stating  how 
precious  a  human  soul  was  in  his  sight.  None  of  the 
trivial  things  that  men  count  excuses  were  serious  mat- 
ters with  him. 

What  were  the  obstacles? 

I.  The  time  and  place.  It  was  in  an  out-of-the-way 
place  with  none  of  the  accessories  that  men  deem  es- 
sential for  evangelistic  work.  It  was  about  noon,  and 
being  under  a  hot,  midday  sun  was  not  conducive  to 
talking  religion.  It  was  a  time  when  people  avoided 
any  unnecessary  effort.  It  was  no  time  or  place  to  do 
evangelistic  work,  men  would  say. 


244  EVANGELISM 

2.  Sex,  The  social  customs  of  the  day  would  ab- 
solve Jesus  from  any  responsibility  of  speaking  to  her. 
Indeed,  he  would  rather  be  condemned  if  he  did. 

3.  Social  Station.  She  was  poor  and  probably  ig- 
norant. She  would  be  of  no  value  to  the  church  if  she 
was  saved,  men  would  argue.  She  would  be  a  liability 
rather  than  an  asset  to  the  church.  She  could  serve  on 
no  committee,  teach  no  class  in  Sunday  school,  con- 
tribute no  support  to  the  church,  therefore,  why  waste 
time  on  her?  That  would  be  the  attitude  of  not  a 
few. 

4.  Race.  She  was  not  a  Jew,  that  is,  not  of  his  class. 
She  was  an  alien,  and  a  hostile  alien  at  that.  Why  at- 
tempt the  impossible  ?  Churches  often  sell  out  and 
move  away  because  they  are  surrounded  by  unsym- 
pathetic aliens.  The  church  men  say,  ''Our  people  are 
all  gone,  and  we  no  longer  have  a  constituency,"  though 
there  may  be  more  people  in  the  neighborhood  than 
before. 

5.  Religion.  She  had  a  religion  of  her  own;  then 
why  foist  another  religion  upon  her?  That  objection 
is  sometimes  raised  against  foreign  missions.  Men  say, 
"These  non-Christian  people  have  a  religion  of  their 
own,  adapted  to  their  country;  then  why  disturb  them 
by  trying  to  force  Christianity  on  them?"  If  Chris- 
tianity were  no  better  than  their  religion,  there  would 
be  no  reason  why  it  should  be  offered  to  them.  If  it 
is  better,  then  there  is  every  reason  why  it  should  be 
offered.    So  thought  Jesus. 

6.  Character.  She  was  a  woman  of  questionable 
character,  and  for  Jesus  to  be  found  alone  with  her 
talking  to  her  might  have  compromised  his  own  char- 


THE  MASTER  SOUL-WINNER         245 

acter.  Better  not  run  the  risk.  It  is  well  to  be  cau- 
tious, but  too  much  caution  may  prevent  service. 

What  did  Jesus  do  with  these  obstacles  ?  He  ignored 
them  and  proceeded  as  if  they  were  not.  Now,  notice 
the  approach  of  Jesus.  "Give  me  a  drink."  Here  is 
a  common  need.  Both  were  thirsty.  He  asks  a  sim- 
ple favor  which  anyone  ought  to  grant  to  a  tired, 
thirsty  traveler.  He  asks  it  in  a  perfectly  courteous 
manner.  But  his  courtesy  was  met  by  her  imperti- 
nence. She  creates  a  fine  opportunity  to  enter  into  race 
discussion — Jew  and  Samaritan.  He  might  have  an- 
swered her  with  both  impertinence  and  scorn,  as  many 
another  would.  However  little  or  much  the  Samari- 
tans had  to  boast  of,  certainly  she  had  nothing  upon 
which  to  base  her  impertinence.  Jesus  met  her  imper- 
tinence with  courtesy,  reminding  her  that  if  she  knew 
who  her  petitioner  was,  she  would  be  his  petitioner, 
and  if  she  was^  he  would  grant  her  request.  Then  he 
told  her  that  his  gift  was  far  greater  than  anything 
she  had  to  give.  He  contrasted  their  gifts,  and  in  the 
comparison  his  was  everything  and  hers  nothing.  His 
continued  courtesy  disarmed  her  prejudice  and  over- 
came her  impudence.  Now  she  addresses  him  with 
respect.  The  poise  of  Jesus  was  one  of  the  conquer- 
ing elements  of  his  character.  When  a  man  loses  his 
temper  he  usually  loses  his  case,  and  that  is  almost  al- 
ways true  in  evangelism.  If  one's  religion  does  not 
give  him  self-mastery,  he  is  only  wasting  words  in 
offering  it  to  another. 

Jesus  sagaciously  keeps  to  the  figure  of  drink.  But 
the  drink  that  he  would  give  would  be  an  inward  per- 
petual satisfaction  as  compared  with  the  water  in  the 


246  EVANGELISM 

well,  which  cost  effort  and  inconvenience,  and  gave 
no  permanent  satisfaction.  He  is  talking  about  water; 
she  is  thinking  about  water.  Religion  is  not  yet  men- 
tioned, and  he  is  not  going  to  introduce*  it.  Now  she 
introduces  a  common  ancestral  ground — ^Jacob.  She 
speaks  of  his  gift  to  them  of  the  well  and  of  his  great- 
ness, as  many  a  person  in  modern  times,  when  in  rather 
close  quarters,  will  tell  of  what  wonderful  Christian 
people  their  grandfather  and  grandmother  were.  But 
people  cannot  live  on  the  piety  of  their  dead  ancestors. 
Jesus  reminded  her  that  Jacob  and  his  sons  and  ser- 
vants and  cattle,  all  of  whom  drank  of  the  well,  were 
dead.  There  was  nothing  life-giving  in  the  drink  that 
she  could  give  him,  but  there  was  in  the  drink  that  he 
could  give  her.  The  soul-winner  must  show  the  world 
that  the  gospel  is  greater,  has  higher  value,  and  gives 
more  permanent  satisfaction  than  anything  in  the 
world.  He  must  adorn  the  gospel.  Too  much  has 
been  said  on  the  loss  side  of  religion,  too  little  on  the 
gain  side  of  it.  Jesus  made  his  gift  glorious  and  com- 
pelling to  her.  Now  she  is  a  suppliant  at  his  feet.  The 
order  has  been  reversed.  She  forgot  her  impertinence, 
her  pride,  her  refusal — all  were  lost  in  the  glory 
of  this  new  gift  which  this  unaccountable  Gentleman, 
whose  like  she  never  saw  before,  had  to  give.  Her  own 
sense  of  need  blotted  out  all  else,  and  now  she  humbly 
asks  him  for  a  favor,  taking  him  at  his  own  word, 
which  showed  her  respect  for  and  confidence  in  him. 
How  quickly  he  won  her !  How  easily  he  might  have 
increased  her  hostility!  He  is  still  talking  of  drink 
and  water,  but  he  means  religion.  He  means  the  life 
of  God  in  her  soul.    She  is  thinking  in  terms  of  water. 


THE  MASTER  SOUL-WINNER         247 

If  Jesus  had  suddenly  said,  "Woman,  I  mean  Jewish 
reHgion,"  she  would  have  resented  it  as  an  attempt  to 
perpetrate  a  coarse  joke  on  a  poor,  hard-working 
woman,  and  that  would  have  ended  the  interview,  and 
Jew  and  Samaritan  would  have  had  less  dealing  than 
ever.  But  how  is  he  going  to  introduce  reHgion  ?  How 
will  he  change  the  subject?  He  will  not  do  it.  He 
will  make  her  do  it ;  and  after  she  has  done  it  she  can- 
not lightly  change  the  subject  again.  She  asks  for 
the  water  he  has  been  speaking  about,  and  he  as  much 
as  says:  "This  gift  is  so  great  that  it  ought  to  be 
shared  with  others.  Go  call  thy  husband."  That 
seemed  like  a  very  simple  and  natural  statement,  but 
it  uncovered  her  whole  checkered  life.  Her  husband! 
There  she  saw  that  wasted,  wicked  life.  How  disap- 
pointing it  looked  now !  But  he  was  a  stranger  and  a 
Jew.  What  did  he  know  about  her  life  as  a  Samari- 
tan? Perhaps  he  is  just  guessing.  He  may  think  that 
she  has  a  husband,  so  she  thinks  that  a  half  truth, 
which  is  often  more  dangerous  than  a  whole  lie,  would 
be  the  easiest  way  out  of  an  embarrassing  situation,  so 
she  said,  "I  have  no  husband."  Then  in  one  short, 
clear  sentence  Jesus  sums  up  her  career,  reminding  her 
that  the  man  she  was  living  with  was  not  her  husband. 
She  saw  that  her  life  was  known,  and  that  nothing 
could  be  hidden  from  that  searching  eye  she  now  faced. 
The  water  and  the  well  and  the  physical  thirst  were  now 
lost  in  the  greater  need  of  the  soul.  She  was  now  only 
the  burned-out  cinder  of  a  former  deceived  and  deceiv- 
ing womanhood;  there  was  nothing  left  now  but  a 
great  need.  Her  soul  now  spoke,  and  it  spoke  about 
religion.     "I  perceive  that  thou  art  a  prophet.     Our 


248  EVANGELISM 

fathers  worshiped" — That  is  a  long  step  from  the  con- 
tempt with  which  she  started.  But  up  to  this  time 
Jesus  did  not  mention  religion,  for  he  led  her  so 
skillfully  that  he  made  her  introduce  it  by  throwing  her 
back  upon  her  sinful  past.  He  made  her  see  her  own 
soul  and  the  need  of  a  better  life  than  she  had  been 
living. 

Now  she  gives  the  opportunity  to  raise  a  religious 
discussion  on  the  respective  merits  of  the  Jewish  and 
Samaritan  religions  (see  verse  20),  but  Jesus  quickly 
reminded  her  that  the  essential  thing  was  a  right  rela- 
tion to  God  which  did  not  depend  upon  the  Samaritan 
mountain  or  the  Jewish  city.  Religion  was  a  matter 
of  the  heart,  not  of  a  locality.  The  true  worshiper 
whose  heart  is  right  with  God  can  worship  anywhere, 
at  that  well  as  truly  as  in  Jerusalem,  or  in  the  temple 
on  Mount  Gerizim.  That  universality  of  worship  was 
to  be  under  the  reign  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  woman 
considered  the  statement  of  Jesus  as  an  ideal  which 
would  be  realized  when  the  Messiah  came,  to  which 
Jesus  replied  the  Messiah  was  there — 'T  that  speak 
unto  thee  am  he"  (see  verses  25,  26). 

He  did  not  tell  her  to  go  home  and  think  it  over  and 
pray  about  it  and  come  back  the  next  day  and  report  to 
him  what  her  decision  was,  as  many  people  do  in  these 
days.  Many  never  come  back  to  report ;  their  enthusi- 
asm cools,  then  conviction  lessens  its  power,  then  sense 
of  need  is  lost  in  attention  to  other  things;  they  are 
often  dissuaded  by  their  friends  from  making  a  favor- 
able decision,  and,  accordingly,  nothing  comes  of  their 
high  resolve.  People  are  often  brought  right  up  to  the 
point  of  decision  and  then  permitted  to  slip  away  with- 


THE  MASTER  SOUL-WINNER         249 

out  deciding  the  matter  and  settling  all  other  matters 
later  in  the  light  of  that  decision.  That  is  a  great  mis- 
take. Delays  between  desires  and  decisions  in  evan- 
gelistic work  are  dangerous. 

Jesus  clinched  the  decision  right  on  the  spot,  and  in- 
stead of  the  woman  going  home  to  think  and  pray  it 
over  before  she  decided,  she  went  home  a  converted 
woman  and  started  a  revival  in  her  own  town.  This 
was  the  best  evidence  that  she  was  converted.  She  be- 
came a  witness  for  Christ  and  a  soul-winner  at  once. 

There  has  been  much  written  on  the  art  of  soul- 
winning,  but  for  consummate  skill  in  the  handling  of  a 
difficult  case  and  by  patience,  gentleness,  courtesy,  and 
wisdom,  bringing  it  to  a  successful  issue,  there  is 
nothing  ever  written  more  masterful  than  the  fourth 
chapter  of  John's  Gospel.  As  a  study  in  the  method 
and  spirit  of  soul-winning,  this  chapter  is  unsurpassed 
and  unsurpassable. 

Jesus  begins  by  asking  a  favor  of  her ;  he  is  a  peti- 
tioner at  her  feet  (verse  7).  She  answers  him  with  im- 
pertinence (verse  8).  Jesus  meets  that  impertinence 
with  gracious  courtesy  (verse  10).  Now  she  becomes 
polite  and  interested  (verses  11,  12).  Jesus  then  con- 
trasts his  gift  with  hers  and  shows  its  superiority 
(verses  13,  14).  She  is  now  a  petitioner  at  his  feet 
asking  a  favor  of  him  (verse  15).  Jesus  throws  her 
back  on  her  sinful  past  to  show  her  a  deeper  need  than 
a  drink  of  water  (verse  16).  The  woman  now  tries  to 
evade  the  issue  by  a  falsehood  (verse  17).  Jesus  then 
sums  up  her  history  in  a  sentence  and  shows  that  he 
cannot  be  deceived  (verses  17,  18).  The  woman  calls 
him  a  prophet,  and  introduces  religion  (verse  19,  20). 


250  EVANGELISM 

Then  Jesus  explains  true  religion  and  the  nature  of 
worship  under  God's  Fatherhood  (verses  21-24).  To 
this  the  woman  replies  that  the  Messiah  in  coming,  and 
he  will  tell  the  people  what  they  ought  to  do;  and  she 
implies  that  when  he  does  the  people  will  obey  (verse 
25).  Jesus  declares  himself  to  be  the  Messiah,  and 
takes  her  at  her  word  (verse  26).  The  woman  is  con- 
verted and  goes  into  the  city  and  witnesses  for  Christ 
(verses  28-30) .  A  revival  is  started  in  Sychar  through 
the  life  and  testimony  of  this  woman  (verses  39-42). 
Now  see  what  was  done,  note  the  process  and  the 
progress. 

( 1 )  He  was  a  Jew  for  whom  she  had  contempt. 

(2)  He  was  a  Gentleman  for  whom  she  had  respect. 

(3)  He  was  a  benefactor  in  whom  she  had  confi- 
dence. 

(4)  He  was  a  Prophet  for  whom  she  had  rever- 
ence. 

(5)  He  was  the  Messiah  whom  she  worshiped. 

(6)  He  was  a  Master  whom  she  served. 

Jew,  gentleman,  benefactor,  Prophet,  Saviour,  Mas- 
ter— those  were  the  steps  in  his  self -revelation  to  her ; 
and  the  steps  of  transformation  in  her  own  attitude 
toward  him  were  contempt,  respect,  confidence,  rever- 
ence, worship,  and  service. 

A  careful  study  of  this  chapter  of  John's  Gospel  will 
give  one  in  a  nutshell  the  psychology  and  the  religion  of 
soul-winning.  It  is  the  earnest  hope  of  the  author 
that  those  who  read  this  book  may  be  helped  by  its 
suggestions  to  see  the  value  of  pastoral  and  personal 
evangelism,  to  give  greater  care  and  culture  to  young 
converts,  and,  above  all,  that  by  studying  the  example 


THE  MASTER  SOUL-WINNER         251 

of  Jesus  as  the  Master  Soul-Winner,  they  may  be  in- 
spired by  his  spirit,  instructed  by  his  method,  and  fired 
by  his  passion  to  help  establish  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
the  earth. 


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